I never thought I would say this about Alec Salmond , but at least one UK politico looks like he has a brain:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestnews/-1000-new-hydro-schemes.44472...

1,000 new hydro schemes to power Scottish homes

By Jenny Howarth
SCOTLAND is set to enter a new era of hydro power after an influential report revealed untapped potential for more than 1,000 new schemes across the country, The Scotsman can reveal.
The study, commissioned by the Scottish Government, reveals enough extra hydro potential to power a quarter of the nation's homes.

It shows there are still 657 megawatts of financially viable hydro electricity schemes to exploit, which would power about 600,000 homes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/02/water.scotland

Scotland hopes for big increase in hydro power
• Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
• The Guardian,
• Tuesday September 2 2008
• Article history
A new generation of large hydroelectric dams and smaller plants across the Highlands could produce enough clean energy for more than half a million homes, a ministerial taskforce has estimated.
A report published today by Scottish ministers suggests that up to 128 new dams and scores of smaller schemes powered by the natural flow of a river could be built across the western and southern Highlands, generating enough electricity for a quarter of Scotland's homes. Scottish executive officials said this would be a "significant step forward" to meeting the Scottish National party's ambitions of generating half the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Yesterday, water began flooding into the reservoir for the largest new hydro scheme to be built in a generation after the first minister, Alex Salmond, ceremonially closed a sluice gate at Glendoe, a 200 megawatt scheme buried under a mountain near Loch Ness.