The Scottish Parliament approved a plan late last week to build a £40 million tidal power development in the Sound of Islay, which separates the islands of Islay and Jura in the Western Isles. The installation is part of the Scottish government’s drive to generate 80% of Scotland’s energy from renewable sources by 2020.
John Swinney, Scotland’s finance secretary, said, “With around a quarter of Europe’s potential tidal energy resource and a tenth of the wave capacity, Scotland’s seas have unrivalled potential to generate green energy, create new, low carbon jobs and bring billions of pounds of investment to Scotland.”
Billions of pounds that usually get promised to places north of London have a way never materializing, but even without a flood of money, it’s all to the good. Islay has 5,000 homes and the turbines will generate enough power for 10,000, meaning they can also power the 8 distilleries on the island.
ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) said in a press release“The project will use HS1000 tidal turbines developed by Hammerfest Strøm AS, a company partly-owned owned by Iberdrola (SPR’s parent company). Seen as one of the world’s most advanced tidal turbine designs, a prototype device has been generating electricity in Norway for over 6 years. The company is currently constructing the first HS1000 device that will go into waters off Orkney later this year.”
Scotland benefited greatly from the discovery of North Sea Oil in the last century, but production peaked there in 1999. The tidal potential of Scotland is likely oversold when people like First Minister Alex Salmond suggest that the country could become the “Saudi Arabia of offshore renewables.”
However, tidal is quite viable in Scotland given its geography and smallish population. Moreover, the planning application was also supported by a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment, so the fisheries in the sound should not suffer greatly.