Wind turbines on Islay
Thursday, February 01 2007
Last night I visited the website from the Islay Energy Trust and had a closer look at their goals and objectives regarding renewable energy on the Islay of Islay. What is The Islay Energy Trust? A statement from their homepage:
The Islay Energy Trust (IET) is a community-owned Company that will distribute funds generated by its renewable energy projects for the benefit of the Islay community. The Trust is a newly formed body seeking charitable status and has an interest in promoting and developing renewable energy projects on the Hebridean Island of Islay.
The Islay Energy Trust (IET) is proposing to develop a wind turbine project at Port Ellen. This would produce electricity, most of which would be purchased by Diageo to meet demand at the Maltings. If development phase is successful, IET will own and operate the turbines, and the funds generated will be used for community benefit.
Although everybody will probably agree with the need for sustainable energy, putting up a wind turbine park near Port Ellen is quite a radical way to provide this "green" energy. Wind turbine parks are, certainly in some areas, very controversial. I only have to refer to the huge wind turbine park which will be built on the Island of Harris on the Outer Hebrides. Wind turbines provide a fair amount of electricity but they have their disadvantages as well. They make noise, they kill birds and they change the landscape dramatically. Although some will say they like a landscape with wind turbines, I personally think wind turbines disturb the landscape too much and am therefore a strong opponent (picture top right) of wind turbines in such delicate areas. I can imagine, with the strong currents in the Sound of Islay, that tidal energy could be a possible solution as well, or even build an off-shore wind turbine park which provides energy for Colonsay, Jura and Islay.
What's Related |
Story Options |
Global warming is happening. Weather patterns are changing. There is a scientific concensus that world temperatures are set to rise at least 2 and 4 degrees in the next 50 to 100 years. It is generally accepted this will have huge consequences to mankind and bio diversity in general. Our own government is already anticipating huge displacement of world population, mass starvation and increasing disputes over dwindling water supplies in specific areas around the main deserts in the world.
Although it is probably too late to avoid the consequences entirely, it is within our power to minimise the consequences by shifting from carbon based energy production to renewable energy production - the most economically developed of which is wind power. Islay is one of the most wind and tidal energy rich areas in the UK. Are we going to be part of the solution ar part of the problem?
The technology to harvest tidal and wave power is at least ten years behind the technology to convert windpower, so Ron's labelling of the solution as 'radical' is missleading. Islay Energy Trust is a community owned and controlled company endeavouring to develop sustainable energy projects throughout Islay, Jura and Colonsay. Ileachs can join the company and influence the objectives of the company - the membership fee is £1. It is anticipated that the Port Ellen wind project could generate a surplus of between £2-3 hundred thousand per annum for distribution to other sustainable community projects on the island. The goal will be long term sustainability of living on Islay.
We estimate that around £12 million is removed annually from Islay's economy every year in payment for the power we consume, so there is a pretty large economic carrot for developing local solutions to energy production. Ileachs cannot help but be aware of the recent problems in oil supply to the distilleries causing shut down in production for periods and the fact that recent upgrades to the pier at Bruichladdich have not solved the supply problems.
IET, in consultation with members in Jura and Colonsay, have been focussing on two projects in recent years: the sustainable harvesting of local forrestry on Islay and Jura for use in Biomass boilers for use in distilleries, local schools, local housing schemes etc; and the wind power project in Port Ellen. Both projects have reached a significant stage of developed, and the Port Ellen wind project will shortly enter a public consultation phase, involving articles in the Ileach, public meetings around Islay, and consultation with Jura and Colonsay, who share our power supply from the mainland.
There is a raft of specific logistical reasons why Port Ellen has been chosen as the proposed site for this development which will be outlined in the consultation and which IET would be pleased to discuss with Ron and any other interested parties in any forum. We have been consulting widely with the various natural protection bodies, airport authorities, and planning departments to make sure there was potential in bringing our proposals to the public.
The implication of Ron's blog was that the proposed site was behind Laphroaig Distillery. In fact it is north west of Port Ellen and involves the use of three 66m masts, fewer and around one tenth the size of those represented in Ron's photograph.
The questions for Ileachs is do they wish to become involved in finding solutions to the consequences of global warming, do they wish to improve the sustainability of Islay life, how to utilise a surplus of £250,000 for the long term quality of life on the islands, do they wish to pursue local economic opportunities with local community companies instead of multinationals, and to imagine the significance of retaining some of the £12million current annual spend on power within our local economy?
kmcl: thank you for your comprehensive comments on this article. I am glad someone joins the discussion and I hope others will follow! The size and location of the wind mills on the picture are merely there to make a statement and not to represent the actual size when built. I think the IET does a very good and very necessary job and I really dont have a problem with the IET ;-) (unless you turn Islay in one big wind farm, which are clearly not your objectives)
In fact, I was hoping to get some discussion going about the proposed wind mills on Islay. Recent proposed sites on the Western Isles, although much larger, raised a huge discussion and protest. I was, and am, wondering how people on Islay and its visitors feel about these plans.
I myself am well aware of the fact that sustainable energy (wind turbines for example) can provide clean energy and that they are very important for our (planets) future. Fact remains that I am personally not to keen on wind mills on Islay or any other delicate area for that matter. I am a nature and wildlife lover and really have a problem with the landscape changing so dramatically. I would personally be more in favour of very large off-shore wind farm sites (for Islay, Jura and Colonsay) or make use of tidal energy. There are some very interesting developments in that area, and these solutions are practically invisible for the human eye.
Ron
---
www.islayinfo.com
Sorry to labour the point but as someone who is a nature and wildlife lover I am sure you will acknowledge that global warming represents a 'real and present danger' to bio diversity on the planet and on Islay.
If conservation is at the top of your priorities as I sence it is - then the sighting of three windmills in a relatively small area of hillside seems a small price to pay for a very significant long term statement of hope and self reliance by Islay's 3,200 (approx) residents on how they wish the island way of living to survive in the long term. When the Hebridean Princess passes Ghia on its trips to and from the island, I for one am filled with some sence of hope in the future - and it is three windmills that create that feeling.
Can I ask if the only environments worth conserving are the ones we can see and touch? The siting of any form of energy harvesting technology will have an equivalent impact on an underwater environment. Is the underwater environment less important from an environmental perspective than the onshore one?It is the human race that requires current and future energy production. Human responsibility for wiping out bio diverity on the planetary time line and creating global warming and all its unforseen consequences is hard to ignore.
The investment for developing clean energy offshore is way beyond our (three island) meager resources, and the technology is still at a developmental stage. Such projects would require economic input from entities far greater than exist on our three islands. I agree that the development process towards wave and tidal power is exciting. They may well become options at some point in the future.
On shore wind harvesting technology is tried, tested and within our budget. We can control the impact of such developments by local participation in the process. We can control the distribution of any surplus created by the process if we choose to. Are we going to gift the opportunity to multinationals and short term profiteers?