February 19, 2017 by Mark Mclaughlin A \"Welcome to Lerwick\" sign in the Shetlands, which is using its strong winds and stormy seas to turn the islands into a European renewable energy giant <\/p>\n
Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic into a European renewable energy giant, producing more power than it knows what to do with. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Even homeowners are getting in on the act with small wind turbines in their gardens and solar panels on their roofssomewhat optimistically in an area where winter daylight lasts just six hours. <\/p>\n
\"We're not 100 percent self sufficient but we're quite a long way towards it,\" Jim Dickson, 69, told AFP at his home in the windswept village of Brae, referring to electricity generation for his own house. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\"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.\" <\/p>\n
The former harbour master knows about the dangers of fossil fuels. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
His efforts to attach a tow rope failed and the ship crashed into the rocks at Quendale Bay, spilling 84,700 tonnes of crude oil into the sea. <\/p>\n
The nation was aghast at images of Shetland's famous seabirds drowning in black ooze. <\/p>\n
Harnessing the sea <\/p>\n
The oil industry in Shetland began in the 1970s with the development of the North Sea fields. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Oil giant Shell has announced plans to decommission the field but new discoveries west of Shetland could give a boost to the industry. <\/p>\n
French energy firm Total has invested 3.5 billion (4.1 billion euros, $4.4 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. <\/p>\n
\"Producing gas and oil from the west of Shetland basin is very, very challenging,\" field operations manager Simon Hare told AFP on a hill overlooking the plant, a sprawling development which stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the islands' natural beauty. <\/p>\n
The gas plant is designed for a lifetime of 30 years. <\/p>\n
But environmentalists are pinning their hopes on another energy asset under the waters around Shetland. <\/p>\n
\"In tidal, we're 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. <\/p>\n
Scotland has 24 percent of Europe's entire marine energy potential because of its powerful tides. <\/p>\n
\"It's great to harness some of that in Shetland,\" he said. <\/p>\n
The turbines' success has had the odd effect of creating too much power. <\/p>\n
\"The Shetland grid is itself constrained now. It cannot take any more renewables,\" he said. <\/p>\n
Around 10 percent of the islands' electricity is generated from renewables and wind and tidal generators are only licenced to produce up to that limit. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The proposal for a connector line to link Shetland to the mainland 200 miles (322 kilometres) away remains uncertain. <\/p>\n
For Dickson, the more renewables the better. <\/p>\n
\"You will always need hydrocarbons to power your jumbo jet, for example, but you shouldn't be making electricity with hydrocarbons,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"It's wrong, it's nonsense\". <\/p>\n
Explore further: New study seeks volunteers to spot 'real' Shetland accents <\/p>\n
2017 AFP<\/p>\n
An Aberdeen linguist is seeking volunteers for a project looking at whether people can detect if a Shetland accent is 'real' or 'fake'. <\/p>\n
(Phys.org) -- An underwater turbine being used for harnessing tidal power to generate electricity for homes and businesses has successfully completed its testing period in the island of Eday, one of Orkneys northern ... <\/p>\n
The British government said Wednesday it was opening talks on plans to build the world's first man-made tidal lagoon in Wales to generate green energy. <\/p>\n
Although wave-generated power could meet a quarter of America's energy needs, the technology lags other renewables such as wind and solar. But the U.S. Navy has established a test site in Hawaii, where power from floating ... <\/p>\n
Denmark has had a record year for wind power production. Denmark got 39.1 percent of its overall electricity from wind in 2014. That figure is according to the country's Climate and Energy Ministry. <\/p>\n
Experts say major archaeological sites on the Scottish coast are in danger of being washed away as sea levels rise. <\/p>\n
Smartphones are revolutionizing the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, thanks to add-ons and apps that make their ubiquitous small screens into medical devices, researchers say. <\/p>\n
BYU engineering professors have created an origami-inspired, lightweight bulletproof shield that can protect law enforcement from gunfire. <\/p>\n
When vertebrates run, their legs exhibit minimal contact with the ground. But insects are different. These six-legged creatures run fastest using a three-legged, or \"tripod\" gait where they have three legs on the ground at ... <\/p>\n
The cutting-edge biocompatible near-infrared 3D tracking system used to guide the suturing in the first smart tissue autonomous robot (STAR) surgery has the potential to improve manual and robot-assisted surgery and interventions ... <\/p>\n
A \"scorpion\" robot sent into a Japanese nuclear reactor to learn about the damage suffered in a tsunami-induced meltdown had its mission aborted after the probe ran into trouble, Tokyo Electric Power company said Thursday. <\/p>\n
A new method developed by Disney Research for wirelessly transmitting power throughout a room enables users to charge electronic devices as seamlessly as they now connect to WiFi hotspots, eliminating the need for electrical ... <\/p>\n
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I recommend http:\/\/sunelec.com<\/a> for all the do it yourselfers out there. <\/p>\n Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more <\/p>\n <\/p>\n See the rest here:<\/p>\n Weaning off oil, Scottish islands eye renewable future - Phys.Org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 19, 2017 by Mark Mclaughlin A \"Welcome to Lerwick\" sign in the Shetlands, which is using its strong winds and stormy seas to turn the islands into a European renewable energy giant Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic 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. Continue reading