Monthly Archives: September 2008

The role of the Crown Estate in Scotland’s marine energy development

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The Crown Estate owns and is now offering parcels of the UK’s sea bed, including Scotland’s, to bidders interested in harnessing tidal energy. It has been much in the news this week through its association with the tidal energy developments announced for the Pentland Firth, Argyll’s Sound of Islay and the Antrim coast off Northern Ireland.

The Pentland Firth area, the first UK marine power site to be opened up for commercial-scale development, is expected to generate more than 700 MW of energy by 2020. Scotland’s First Minister has described it as ‘the Saudi Arabia of tidal energy’ and, with its surrounding area, it contains six of the top ten best sites in the UK for tidal power development. It already hosts the European Marine Energy Centre, the first test centre for wave and tidal technology anywhere in the world, offering another attraction to marine energy developers.

The granting and leasing of options over areas of seabed in the Pentland Firth area will be concluded in the summer of 2009. The first devices – expected to be full size demonstration turbines, will be on site in 2010 – 2011. The Crown Estate will look closely to see what local community benefits each developer can incorporate into their scheme and all commercial development will be subject to a comprehensive environmental impact assessment. The development will consider all ‘stakeholder’ interests such as international shipping routes, ferry traffic, fishing, defence, environment and ecology.

Rob Hastings, Director of the Marine Estate at The Crown Estate, said: ‘Unlocking the potential in the Pentland Firth is crucial to meeting Scottish government renewable energy targets, stimulating the north Scotland economy and boosting the fledgling renewables industry.

‘The Crown Estate is keen to play a central role in generating confidence in the investor community – the process we are announcing today is an important step towards achieving just that.

‘As well as the economic opportunities for energy production here, the area could become a world class centre of excellence in wave and tidal power development, research, testing and environmental monitoring’.

The Crown Estate is a historical anachronism which has carved a role for itself in the modern world through radical change.  It is a property portfolio historically owned by the monarchy but evolved into an institution transferring its income to the national government.

It is one of the largest property owners in the United Kingdom with a portfolio worth over £7.33 billion, with urban properties valued at £5.38 billion, rural holdings valued at £903 million; and an annual profit of £211 million, yielding 2.88% as of July 2008. The majority of the estate by value is urban, with a large number of properties in central London but it also owns 110,000 hectares (272,000 acres) of agricultural land and forest, and more than 55% of the UK’s foreshore.

In Scotland, the hereditary land revenues of the Crown were transferred to the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings and their successors under the Crown Lands (Scotland) Acts of 1832, 1833 and 1835. The holdings in question centre around former ecclesiastical land (following the abolition of the episcopacy in 1689) in Caithness and Orkney; and ancient royal possession in Stirling and Edinburgh; and feudal dues. There is little urban property but it owns the salmon fishing rights and, very germane to renewable energy development, it owns the Scottish foreshore.

The specific revenue transfer arrangements are likely to mean that all of the Crown Estate revenues automatically go to the Westminster Exchequer. Revenues from the leasing of Scotland’s sea bed, if not transferred to the Scottish Government, have all the potential to raise a new cry reminiscent of ‘It’s Scotland’s oil’.

National significance of Argyll’s Auchindrain Township Museum recognised

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THe Auchindrain Township Museum, along with five other museum collections across Scotland, has just been made a Recognised Collection under the scheme administered for the Scottish Government by Museums Galleries Scotland. The purpose of th scheme is to identify and subsequently suport collections of nation al significane which are held in Scotland;s museums and galleries.

This is real achievement for the too-often-unsung local museum of Auchindrain. Under its current curator, Joanne Howdle, the museum has pursued an energetic programme, bringing in traditional arts and crafts practitioners and storytellers and developing collaborative evens with other national and international organisations. The full story of this current recognition of its value is to be found at its website in the For Argyll network.

ScottishPower forms new company with Norwegian partners to build Lanstrom marine turbines in Scotland

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As we reported yesterday, in addition to developing three sites for tidal energy generation – the Pentland Firth, Argyll’s Sound of Islay and the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland in the North Channel off Argyll’s Kintyre peninsula, ScottishPower is also to manufacture up to sixty Lanstrom marine turbines a year by 2011.

The Lanstrom turbine is the most advanced in the world. It has been developed in Norway and now ScottishPower has formed a company with Norwegian partners to manufacture the turbines.

The company will be based in Scotland. No location has yet been announced but we speculated yesterday that Campbeltown, on the Mull of Kintyre, could be a strong contender, possibly the strongest contender, for several reasons:

  • It is on the west and north coast of Scotland where the strongest tidal races are to be found
  • Campbeltown’s location makes it ideal for shipping completed turbine parts to all of the three announced sites and to other potential tidal energy generation sites on the west and north coasts. These include, among others, Argyll’s Sound of Corryvreckan and the Ross of Mull.
  • Campbeltown is the major industrial harbour north of Glasgow on the west coast. It lies at the head of the sheltered Cambeltown Loch and has dockside facilities which have already seen wind turbine towers made locally shipped out from there.
  • Campbeltown has just been devastated by the Vestas announcement that it is to close its wind turbine manufacturing plant there – at Machrihanish, bringing the loss of over ninety jobs to an area with a very fragile economy. The transfer of this plant to Scottish Power’s new company would be commercially logical and would not only restore the fortunes of Campbeltown but promote it to the top of renewable energy development, along with Scotland itself.
  • The necessary manufacturing skills are already in the Campbeltown area’s workforce, through its history with the Vestas plant.

The Herald has a very useful video on its website, showing a simulation of the Lanstrom marine turbine being installed and in operation, weighted to the sea bed and with its blades, 30 metres higher, turning with the tide in constant harnessing of its energy.

It will also be interesting to keep an eye on the Islay Energy Trust website, as ScottishPower’s developments in the Sound of Islay progress.

Scottish Government unequivocally opposed to GM crops

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First Minister, Alex Salmond, objects absoutely to the growing of GM crops in Scotland. Environment Minister, Michael Russell has said: ‘We are not prepared to have trials of GM crops take place and we are not interested in GM cultivation.

Earlier in September, the Government of Northern Ireland made it clear that it will stand with the Government of the Republic of Ireland in keeping GM crops out of the island of Ireland.

Last week the Welsh Assembly confirmed its long-standing policy of ‘the most restrictive approach to GM crop cultivation’. It also noted the fact that opposition to the development of GM crop cultivation has cross-party support.

There is a strong commercial lobby for GM oods and it has carried significant weight with the UK Government. It still does. Tony Blair and Lord Sainsbury (no vested interest in cheap food there)  drove through a series of trials which not only brought invasion of the countryside by angrily concerned protesters but demonstrated that GM crops are not containable and do cross-pollenate with conventional plants. Once out of the bottle, this genie is literally unstoppable. Scotland was one of the sites for these trials – as on the Black Isle in Cromarty.

The UK Governnment is now pushing for GM crop development again. Phil Woolas, Environment Minister, is going for the strong arm tactics which seem to be becoming the hallmark of this beleaguered government. He has reversed the previous ‘precautionary principle’ meant to guide Government policy and said: ‘If you are opposed to GM it is now up to you to provide the evidence that there is harm.’ Ten years ago the obligation was – rightly – on the other side of the argument. Mr Woollas has ‘given’ those opposed a period of one year to prove their case.

Scotland’s Environment Minister, Michael Russell, is forming a coalition of oposition from the devolved nations between whom he says there is ‘a unanimity of view’. This is designed as a counterstrike against Westminster’s determined support for the technology in the UK.

Research into the genetic effects in the food chain – which includes those who eat it – has to be long term.  It has to monitor the contrived genetic modifications and to monitor any emergence of unplanned genetic modifications which may arise from the experiment. At the moment, with such a major re-engineering of the genetic code of the food we eat, there is not nearly enough information to support further trials in the field.

Mr Russell feels that it is wrong of the UK Government to attempt to force its will in this case from the base of one country (which has no way of making its individual voice heard anyway) when the other three nations in the union are strongly opposed.

The Minister now plans an early meeting with Mr Woolas to explore establishing a prior meeting of all four Governments in Britian before each European vote on GM crop development – to agree on how the British vote will be placed. Britain has previously – and always – voted ‘Yes’ in EC debates. Mr Russell’s plan would be likely to see this become an abstention.

The argument for GM crops is an argument for cheap food to benefit the developing world. There is no guarantee that retailers would keep prices low once GM foods were in production and indeed history would suggest that the reverse is much more likely. The profit motive rules.

Swedish-owned Vattenfall rumoured to be considering buying ScottishPower

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Today’s announcement of ScottishPower’s plans to develop three marine turbine farms in Scottish and Irish waters comes as long-standing rumours intensify of a possible bid for the company by Swedish-owned Vattenfall.

There are shared areas of development between them, including new technology in carbon capture, where carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored in secure locations, usually beneath the sea bed.

ScottishPower is currently owned by Spain’s Iberdrola and is upfront in the race to win the UK Government’s competition to establish a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration plant. The company recently announced its formation of a consortium to turn two units of the Longannet Power Station in Fife into a CCS operation. This would mean removing the carbon dioxide emissions from the coal burning at the plant before storing it deep underground.

ScottishPower’s group, which also includes North Sea operator Marathon Oil Corporation and CCS technology providers Aker, has found an undersea aquifer in the Firth of Forth that looks like it could potentially store all of Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions for the next six centuries,

For Argyll has already reported on Vattenfall’s recent commissioning of the world’s first Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plant beside their Schwarze Pumpe power station in Germany – and noted Scotand’s interest in this development.

Vattenfall has just said that it intends to build two demonstration CCS plants with a capacity of up to 500MW by 2015, and that ‘from 2020 onwards the technology should be economically viable and available for large-scale industrial applications’.

There is a logic in its potential acquisition of ScottishPower. It will be interesting to see if the rumours are well founded.

Is Campbeltown to be site of planned ScottishPower marine turbine manufacturing plant?

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In connection with today’s announcement that ScottishPower is to test and develop three sites for tidal energy development, it is understood that the company is also planning to build a manufacturing hub to produce around 60 1MW machines a year by 2011.

Might this use the base at Machrianish in Campbeltown from which Vestas are about to decamp? The location would be ideal for sea transport of the turbines to all three planned marine energy farms – in Argyll’s Sound of Islay, the Antrim Coast off Northern Ireland in the North Channel and the Pentland Firth.

If this were to happen it would be an imaginative response to the disaster of the planned Vestas closure. Not only would it save and possibly develop employment in the fragile Kintyre economy, but it would launch the area to the very head of development of what is the key area of energy research and development. Is this what Energy Minister Jim Mather has up his sleeve?

World’s largest space exhibition at Glasgow’s SECC

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The World’s largest space exhibition will run at the SECC in Glasgow this week, starting today. Between 29th September and 3rd October, 2,000 delegates to the 2008 International Astronautical Congress will hear from the heads of the world’s major space agencies, including Europe, USA, Canada, Russia, China, India and Japan. Each will each make a short presentation on plans for the future.

Some days will be open to the public, including students, with lectures from top scientists and a technology exhibition, with a visit to a satellite launch offered as a prize in a competition.

Each of the event’s five-days is themed.

  • Monday is ‘agencies day’, with, as described above, addresses from the major space agencies
  • Tuesday is ‘industry day’, with opportunities for businesses to discuss commercial opportunities
  • Wednesday is ‘climate day’, examining the contribution made by earth observation to monitoring and managing climate change
  • Thursday is ‘exploration day’, focusing on the International Space Station and specific planets
  • Friday is ‘citizens’ day’, looking at the possibility of creating a base on the moon. Some astronauts will be present to talk to members of the public about their experiences and their lifestyles.

Argyll’s Sound of Islay to be site for marine turbine testing alongside Scotland’s ‘Saudi Arabia of marine energy’

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We have been waiting for a Scottish Government announcement on exciting developments in marine turbine power generation. It has now come, as the First Minister joins one hundred and fifty delegates and representatives from around twenty marine energy developers at the Caithness Regeneration Conference.

ScottishPower has identified the Pentland Firth, Argyll’s Sound of Islay and the Antrim coast off Northern Ireland in the North Channel as the sites for its testing of marine turbines capable of generating power for forty thousand homes. We have already reported on the Crown Estate now opening up the Pentland Firth seabed (and much more of Scotland’s coastal sea bed) for leasing to developers. This is a key part of the current development.

Mr Salmond said the Pentland Firth could be seen as the ‘Saudi Arabia of marine energy’. Speaking powerfully about the firth, the First Minister said: ‘Well known for centuries amongst mariners as a rough and foreboding sea, I believe that its awesome power will soon come to be seen across the world as the centrepiece of global efforts to take green energy from waves and tides.

‘The Crown Estate will play a crucial part in enabling developers to take the next step and turn tested, reliable technology into the next wave of generating stations, pumping out electricity for homes and business.

‘A strong marine renewables sector will drive further investment, cut emissions and give us a new contribution to sustainable economic growth’.

ScottishPower has been working on the Lanstrom marine turbine, tested in Norway and said to be the world’s most advanced tidal turbine. The company is expected to apply for planning permission for the three sites next year. Together they will carry around sixty Lanstrom turbines – 20 each and generating 60 MW for up to 40,000 homes.

Although trawlers will be banned from the areas concerned, for obvious safety reasons to do with netting, ScottishPower is adamant that there is no threat to marine life from these turbines. The Marine Conservation Society wants to examine their proposals closely and see a rigorous environmental impact assessment.

In terms of Caithness, the north’s economy would gain support from marine energy development in the Pentland Firth as jobs are progressively lost in the decommissioning of the old nuclear power plant at Dounreay. In recognition of this, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is one of the partners in the Pentland Firth Tidal Energy Project.

Technical note: The Lanstrom marine turbine stands on three legs on the sea bed and can be sited as far as 100m below the surface. Unlike the ‘jet engine’ appearance of the sea-bed turbine developed by Irish company OpenHydro, which sits on the bottom and was tested recently off Eday in Orkney, the Lanstrom device looks like and is like an underwater wind turbine.

HBOS says Lloyds TSB takeover ‘good for Scotland’ while Santander’s Abbey eyes Bradford and Bingley’s savings business

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The Scottish Government’s economic advisers will meet shortly to discuss the Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS take over. Shane O’Riordan, Communications Manager fpr HBOS, says that the deal will benefit customers and shareholders. He rejected suggestions that the business was in crisis.

Jim Spowart of Intelligent Finance, who has been working with SNP MSP Alex Neil to put together a group of senior financiers to mount a buy-out bid for the Bank of Scotland, says his interest is still live, Expert opinion indicates that, if a counterbid is lodged for all of HBOS, it is likely to come from BNP Paribas, HSBC or Barclays.

While the HBOS saga continues, the £50 billion mortgage and loans side of the endangered Bradford & Bingley (B&B) bank is to be nationalised – possibly pending later sell-offs. It looks as if Abbey, now a subsidiary of Banco Santander, the giant bank that took it over some years ago and has just bought Alliance and Leicester, will buy B&B’s £20 billion savings business.

Santander are suggesting that the price for this business – 2.7 million customer savings accounts – will be around £400 million. This price would also net Santander / Abbey over 200 B&B branches. If all of this were sold for £400 million, it would be surprisingly cheap.

Breaking News: 8.00am, Monday 29th September

Share trading in Bradford & Bingley has now been suspended for the time being, as a protective measure. This is the action that Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life, has said should have been taken with HBOS shares. In his criticism of the UK Government’s earlier handling of the banking crisis, Mr Skeoch points out that if shares had been suspended, alongside an announcement that HBOS and Lloyds were in talks, it would have prevented the catastrophic slide of 50% of HBOS share value in that last critical day.

Check out Jura’s Digital Archive

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Compiled progressively by The Feolin Study Centre on Argyll’s Isle of Jura, the Jura Digital Archive, available online, currently carries material on Jura’s Gaelic Landscape, the Jura Parish Register and the Kileamadil Cemetary Graves Inventory. If you have an interest in the island or research to do, this i a good place to go.