The performance of the Scottish Power Renewables’ marine turbine Continue reading
Tag Archives: marine energy
Summit at misnamed Battleby to see marine energy sector share good practice
Companies developing marine renewable energy are to gather Continue reading
Westminster inquiry into Crown Estate in Scotland
Members of Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee, Continue reading
UHI Millennium Institute to achieve university status in weeks
The marathon project of creating the uniquely Scottish University Continue reading
Lewis and Islay goalposts in Hammerfest HS1000 marine turbine development
Norwegian energy company, Hammerfest, has announced a project to build ten Continue reading
Renewable energy: capacity and technology is there but…
(updated below on 17th December) … where is the infrastructure – the investment in the infrastructure? Continue reading
Argyll’s MSP and Energy Minister, Jim Mather, responds to concerns over Kintyre grid upgrade
As For Argyll recently reported, Councillor Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, has written to the First Minister, Alex Salmond expressing anxiety about the exclusion of Argyll from the planned upgrade to the National Grid.
The National Planning Framework for Scotland (NPF2) is currently before the Scottish Parliament and is due to be debated on 5th March 2009. It sets out details of future plans for electricity grid reinforcements, including sub-sea cables. Councillor Walsh points out that, in spite of previous representations from Argyll and Bute Council, the crucial Hunterston to Carradale cable has not been included in the plan, while cables for Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles are planned.
For Argyll contacted Mr Mather on the matter and the Minister has now sent this information for publication: ‘The issue of Grid connection has been getting the focus that the people of Argyll & Bute and the rest of Scotland would expect. This Scottish Government has always believed that subsea transmission options must be considered if we are to fully capitalise on our abundant renewable energy potential on the West Coast. We are therefore involved in a subsea grid study, in partnership with the administrations of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
‘In 2007, the Scottish Government, along with the Department of Trade and Industry (Northern Ireland) and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (Republic of Ireland), with full funding support from the EU Interreg IV programme, commissioned a pre-scoping grid study.
‘The aim of this study was to identify the requirements of a full feasibility study for capitalising on the natural resources of the west coast of Scotland, the north and east coasts of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea and the west coast of the Republic of Ireland, to generate energy from offshore renewables.
‘The report outlines what would be required for a full feasibility study into the development of an offshore grid in the region. The Scottish Government hosted an industry workshop to discuss the findings of the pre-scoping study on 8th April 2008 and has applied for EU Interreg funding, along with our Irish partners, towards the cost of a full feasibility study.
‘This detailed study will explore the technological, economic, construction and regulatory challenges associated with the development of such an offshore transmission network.
‘The aim of this work is to help make the business case for long term commercial investment.
‘Meantime, Scottish Ministers are aware of concerns about grid connection to Hunterston and have asked officials to meet with Argyle and Bute Council to help develop their renewable ambitions, in the context of our national ambitions – and to strategically address barriers to achievement.
‘The Proposed National Planning Framework 2 (NPF2) is currently being considered by Parliament. A report of the parliamentary consideration, with any recommendations for changes, is anticipated to be made available to Scottish Ministers on or after 6th March (the end of the consideration period). We will consider that report in making any final changes to NPF 2.
‘Any concerns over the omission of a subsea cable from Hunterston to Carradale in the Proposed National Planning Framework (NPF) 2 should be made known to the Convenor of the Local Government and Communities Committee (the lead committee) as soon as possible in order that the committee is aware of the issue in finalising its report’.
This last is obviously an action for Argyll and Bute Council to take as a matter of urgency. The meeting promised here by the Minister between officials and the Council to pursue Argyll’s needs for the Hunterston – Carradale cable is another crucial opportunity.
In the field of renewable energy development – so critical for Scotland’s non-nuclear energy delivery strategy – Scotland needs Argyll as much as Argyll needs this grid upgrade. Argyll has very real and necessary resources across a wide spectrum of potential renewable energy sources. Having said that, it is important for the Council, as its Leader is doing, to keep Argyll in the forefront of the Scottish Government’s consciousness, automatically associated with renewable energy delivery.
Footnote: Underlining Scotland’s status in the field, the British-Irish Council meeting on Friday (20th February) gave the Scottish Government the lead role in developing renewable energy technology while the UK Government looks at proposals to renew the grid infrastructure.
Open Day at Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory
The Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) at Dunbeg just north of Oban, is holding its annual Open Day on Saturday 7th March from 11.00am to 5.oopm.
Admission is free and the day offers a wide range of experiences from meeting people, talking and listening, looking, exploring, learning, doing competitions and winning prizes.
See for yourself the hangar where SAMS keeps equipment for exploring the ocean. Look at marine creatures close-up. See how the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology companies discover and develop new technologies and medicines from the marine environment.
Supported by a Scottish Government public science engagement grant called ‘Sharing Science’, the event also brings researchers from the University of Dundee and the University of Edinburgh to give you every opportunity to find out about exciting areas of Scottish research conducted outside Argyll.
SAMS is one of the biggest jewels in the crown of Argyll. It is involved in cutting edge research in matters at the heart of developments in marine energy and biomass. Everything it does links directly to Argyll’s greatest strength – its wealth of natural resources. This is our future in economic develeopment and SAMS is ann engine i taking us there.
Saturday 7th March is a chance to get to see this at up close and personal and to get to things you’ll want to know more about afterwards.
For further information contact Helen on 01631 559430
Argyll’s renewable energy potential will literally go nowhere without inclusion in planned National Grid upgrade
Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, has written to First Minister Alex Salmond as a matter of urgency. Argyll has been excluded from the planned upgrade to the National Grid.
The National Planning Framework for Scotland (NPF2) is currently before the Scottish Parliament and is due to be debated on 5th March 2009. It sets out details of future plans for electricity grid reinforcements, including sub-sea cables. Councillor Walsh points out that, in spite of previous representations from Argyll and Bute Council, the crucial Hunterston to Carradale cable has not been included in the plan.
In contrast, the cables for Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles are planned.
Councillor Walsh is saying: ‘The inclusion of this sub-sea cable in the National Planning Framework is critical to Argyll and Bute’s future as a centre for renewable energy production.
‘The electricity grid within Argyll and Bute is currently “saturated” – with the result that any new energy projects, even very small ones, are being refused connections any earlier than 2018. We need to increase capacity so that we can play to our strengths and introduce new wind, marine and tidal developments.
‘I cannot over-emphasise the importance of the Hunterston to Carradale sub-sea cable if we are to ensure that our extensive renewable resources can be harnessed for the long term benefit of our economy, our communities and our businesses’.
The situation highlighted by Councillor Walsh is a very serious one for Argyll. This is a place that urgently needs to establish a long-term earning capacity to sustain its economy. It is the second largest local authority area in Scotland and has a small populatiuon which is the third most dispersed in Scotland.
This means that the infrastructural and service costs Argyll annually faces are significantly higher than is the case in most other Scottish local authorities while it lacks the population base to pay for them in taxes.
In every sense, renewable energy generation is a major and enduring answer to Argyll’s economic needs. it has first class and accessible resources over the spectrum of tide, wave, wind and biomass.
It may have the means to generate this type of power and to keep generating it, but without a grid capable of carrying the power away from its sources, no serious production project can be launched here. Argyll is shackled from the start.
Argyll is Scotland’s Cinderella – beautiful but poor and orphaned. It’s close to the Central Belt but not of the Central Belt in culture or in nature. It’s technically part of the Highlands and Islands but, as that region’s most southerly territory, is not owned by the Highlands at the necessary visceral level. Argyll is not one of ‘the home counties’ for, say, Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
The Highlands and Islands see Argyll as close to the Central Belt and therefore brushed with relative gold dust and not in need. This is very far from the case.
Argyll is hugely rich in natural resources and in the beauty of its landscape. It is economically poor and lacks the employment possibilities to attract economically active incomers and to offer opportunities with real career development to its young people. It’s two real strengths for economic development are renewable energy and activity tourism.
Argyll and Bute Council has made serious strides forward in its governance of the area but however strongly it walks and however focused it is on its targets, it needs arrows in its quiver.
Argyll’s constituency MSP is the Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Minister, Jim Mather. He is very well placed to understand the economic development needs of Argyll and to know its place in the Government’s priorities in renewable energy development. For Argyll is drawing this matter to his attention and asking him to send us his perspectives on the situation for publication.
The photograph of Argyll and Biute Council Leader, Dick Walsh, has been cropped from a group shot issued to For Argyll by the Council’s Communication Team, taken at the recent launch in Argyll of the Registrar General’s Book of Scottish Connections.
Argyll encouraged by 38 expressions of interest in marine energy development in Pentland Firth
An indication for Argyll of the depth of interest in marine energy generation is the announcement by the Crown Estate that it has received 38 expressions of interest in leasing parcels of the sea bed in Scotland’s Pentland Firth for marine energy projects. These expressions of interest have come from single companies and from consortia.
The Crown Estate owns the seabed between the mainland and Orkney – which one day will be an issue and, unsurprisingly is delighted with the lively response to its opening the Pentland Firth area for such bids. First Minister Alex Salmond also found the degree of interest encouraging.
The Scottish Government is preparing a new planning document – the Marine Spatial Plan – which will describe the commercial opportunities and the challenges to be faced in harnessing marine energy.
Argyll has very real potential resources in marine and tidal renewable energy development. The main one of these is the Sound of Islay with its 9 knot bore and, as we have reported, the Islay Energy Trust are already engaged with Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University in a major project which will see trials of a marine turbine installation take place in a selected area of the Sound.
The level of interest in the Pentland Firth is proof of the incentive for Argyll’s to start preparing for such developments in its own powerful seaways and waterways.
The photograph above is by the copyright holder, Peter Ewards and shows the shoreline on the Sound of Islay looking north across to Jura and the Paps of Jura. It is reprodiced here under the Creative Commons licence.