Blog: Holyrood Renewables: End the uncertainty

I’ve just read the article written by Calum Davidson of Highlands and Islands Enterprise in Holyrood Renewables magazine: ‘End the uncertainty’. In it he describes one of the major barriers presently facing the development of the marine energy industry – the cost of connecting to and using the grid. In Orkney, and other peripheral islands communities, we are disproportionately charged despite having the best natural resources and greatest potential to provide a clean renewable energy supply both now and in the future.

The rules surrounding grid charging were written for a time when electricity had to be generated by burning fossils. It made sense to incentivise this to be near the population centres because the fuel was portable and only some electricity was transmitted to the peripheries. But now the flow is reversing; energy is now being harvested in peripheral areas and sent to the cities. So the old rules no longer make sense, but since they govern the grid, they are impeding progress to a sustainable energy system.

Unfortunately it is not just the exciting new technologies of wave and tidal energy that are being impeded. The economic benefit to the country of this indigenous resource is not being realised, innovation is being stifled and the employment opportunities in these energy rich peripheral areas are presently being missed. I am sure that no-one designed the rules to prevent enterprise, but regrettably that will be the effect unless the barriers are removed.

Neil Kermode, Managing Director of EMEC

Calum’s article is available to read here: End the uncertainty