Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands into a
European renewable energy giant, producing more power than it knows what to
do with.
The tidal-power underwater turbines that were completed last month are only
the latest green energy project for an archipelago that has been reliant
for decades on the North Sea offshore industry.
Even homeowners are getting in on the act with small wind turbines in their
gardens and solar panels on their roofs – somewhat optimistically in an
area where winter daylight lasts just six hours.
“We are not 100 percent self-sufficient but we are quite a long way toward
it,” Jim Dickson, 69, told AFP at his home in the village of Brae,
referring to electricity generation for his own house.
Dickson, who lives near the Sullom Voe oil terminal, can power the building
and an electric-powered Nissan Leaf car from a turbine in his garden with
enough left over to feed into the island’s grid when conditions are favourable.
“What I make from the government for producing per kilowatt hour more than
pays for what I buy from the grid, so effectively there is no power bill.”
The former harbourmaster knows about the dangers of fossil fuels. He was
winched aboard the out-of-control oil tanker MV Braer in 1993 during the
worst cyclone on record in the North Atlantic, in an ill-fated attempt to
prevent it running aground.
His efforts to attach a towing rope failed and the ship crashed into the
rocks at Quendale Bay, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil into the sea.
The oil industry in Shetland began in the 1970s with the development of the
North Sea fields. The Brent field east of the archipelago became an emblem
of the industry, with “Brent Crude” becoming a benchmark for oil trading
around the world.
Oil giant Shell has announced plans to decommission the field but new
discoveries west of Shetland could give a boost to the industry.
French energy firm Total has invested £3.5 billion in a new gas plant near
Sullom Voe that opened last year to extract gas from its fields west of
Shetland, Laggan and Tormore.
“Producing gas and oil from the west Shetland basin is very, very
challenging,” field operations manager Simon Hare told AFP. The gas plant
is designed for a lifetime of 30 years.
But environmentalists are pinning their hopes on another energy asset under
the waters around Shetland.
“In tidal, we are very fortunate in Scotland,” said Patrick Ross-Smith,
Shetland development officer at Nova Innovation, which has installed three
100-Kilowatt turbines in the Bluemull Sound.
Scotland has 24 percent of Europe’s entire marine energy potential because
of its powerful tides. But the proposal for a connector line to link
Shetland to mainland Scotland – 200 miles to the south – remains uncertain.
“It is great to harness some of that in Shetland,” he said.
The turbines’ success has had the odd effect of creating too much power.
“The Shetland grid is itself constrained now. It cannot take any more
renewables,” he said.
Around 10 percent of the islands’ electricity is generated from renewables
and wind and tidal generators are only licensed to produce up to that limit.
There is no connecting cable between Shetland and mainland Britain and as
the renewable energy cannot easily be stored to ensure stable supply, the
turbines have to be switched off from time to time.
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