Treasure islands
A quiet energy revolution has been taking place in Orkney.
Tanya Weaver takes a look
In Icelandic, Orkney quite literally means Energy (ork) Islands (ney) and according to Gareth Davies, the managing director of environmental consultants Aquatera and the chairman of the Orkney Renewable Energy Forum, when it comes to renewables this island community is more than aptly named. It comprises over 70 islands located off the northern tip of Scotland where the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet and has a population of around 20,000. “Orkney is blessed with ferocious winds, ranging tides, pounding seas and productive soils that are sometimes challenging for those of us who make these islands our home. But if you are looking for renewable resources - ours are as good as they get,” says Davies.
Orkney has a history of wind energy technology dating back to the 1950s when the first large-scale electro-aerogenarator was installed on the islands. This expanded to wave and tidal energy when in 2000 it became the base for the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), which was established to help the evolution of marine energy devices from the prototype stage into the market place. Since then the Pelamis wave energy converter, operating 2km off the west coast of the Orkney mainland, produced the first grid electricity from an offshore device and last year Europe’s first tidal energy device, the Open Centre Turbine, was installed at EMEC’s Fall of Warness test site. “This quiet energy revolution has led to the point where Orkney gets around 50 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, where 150 people are directly employed in renewables - related jobs and a further 100 have a significant renewables role,” comments Davies.
Resourceful
However, he strongly believes that it’s the resourcefulness of the people of Orkney and ‘community spirit’ that ensures this energy is delivered. There is a great sense of community engagement in renewable projects for instance, just this year, plans have been lodged for six community wind turbines. Aquatera itself is very much involved with the community and since 2000 the company has had a high level of active participation in promoting and supporting the appropriate development of renewable technology. “We do try and bring expertise that we have gathered to helping local problems and help others develop their own solutions,” says Davies. For instance, it has played wide ranging roles on projects such as the installation of Irish company OpenHydro’s tidal turbine at the EMEC as well as participating in the Orkney-Caithness inter-connector. “We look at how technology might effect the environment and how the environment affects potential technology. The environmental relationship is key to what we provide people,” says Davies.
In order to show the raw energy potential available on and around the islands Aquatera produced a detailed resources assessment - Renewable Energy Resources Assessment for Orkney and Shetland - in 2005, which concluded that there is around 5GW of potential capacity across all sources of renewables in Orkney. “There is a great capacity for renewables for Orkney and only a small proportion will come from onshore wind. The next big areas will be in the marine technologies - wave, tidal and offshore wind. Tidal is most productive with 2000MW of tidal capacity, then 1000MW offshore wind and 500MW offshore wave,” says Davies.
However, he stresses that in terms of timescales, if the Scottish Government wants to have a 1000MW of wave and tidal by 2020, it needs clear and rapid decision-making. “It probably is achievable if we build on places like Orkney,” says Davies. “Aquatera are lobbying that the building blocks to meet those targets are in place.” According to him, this means that there needs to be a regulatory regime that encourages development, an economic basis that makes commercial sense, infrastructure provided in terms of parts and grid connection, a licensing regime that enables the technology to be deployed in the most appropriate places as well as skills and expertise available to support these activities.
Over the years Aquatera have been building a detailed understanding of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead and Davies is in no doubt, that given the investment and support, the scale of Orkney’s future contribution to the energy demands of the UK will be spectacular. “Some people may doubt that the 5GW of capacity potential will be exploited. But in Orkney we have no doubt that it will be developed because we have both the people, desire and need to make it happen,” he concludes.
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