Argyll has a strong body of renewable energy schemes already in place with a number more at the planning and development stage. We have a world first with the Limpet wave device on Islay, the first commercial wave device to produce electricity from the seas motion. Wavegen, the company who built it, are now considering a second device for Islay. Argyll with its extensive coast line is a natural choice for this type of renewable energy production.
There are a number of Wind Farms dotted around the area with 3 in Kintyre,1 in North Argyll and another 2 in Cowal. A further 2 for North Argyll are currently at the planning stage along with plans for community owed small scale schemes on the islands of Gigha, Tiree and Lismore. We also have a high number of Hydro-Electric schemes, still the most common form of renewable energy electricity generation in Scotland. It is, after all, driven by rain power!
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Scottish Power are the two main players in this field and while SSE have the most installations Scottish Power has the largest single power source. The Cruachan Power Station was the first of its kind when it was built over 40 years ago. This is a pumped storage hydro-electric system which can generate up to 400MW of power and acts as a back up system to the national grid. It is only in use at times of peak demand. A pumped storage system holds a head of water at some height above the generating turbines, in this case a resevoir on Ben Cruachan itself, which then uses gravity as the driving force as released water passes through the turbines. Only 10% of the water is actually produced by rain, the rest has to be pumped back up from Loch Awe to the resevoir at night during a period of low demand on the grid. This means that it cannot contribute to the baseload of the national grid as it is only able to run at full power for a few hours at a time before requiring to replenish the head of water. The station itself is well worth a visit as there is a guided tour of the 'hollow mountain' but not recommended if you suffer from claustrophobia.
The nature of pump storage is just one of the reasons that the European Union does not count hydro-electric power towards the targets set for each member state for electrical generation by renewable energy methods.
The two Scottish power companies are major producers in the UK with SSE owning 10,000MW (third largest) of generating capacity and as of July 2004 a healthy 1,362MW (14%) is produced by renewable energy methods. The bulk of this figure is hydro-electric with, up until recently, only 13MW from other sources, specifically the Tangy Wind Farm in Kintyre. The recent purchase of the Spurness Wind Farm (11MW) in Orkney now takes this total to 24MW but this is set to be eclipsed once the 130MW Hadyard Hill project is online. This along with the consented 20MW Artfield Fell site will see a total wind power output of 174MW by the end of 2005.
Scottish Power owns 5000MW of generation in the UK and currently have about 160MW of renewable generation (excluding hydro-electric) with over 500MW of planned installation. When their Inverliever (29MW) wind farm comes online then Argyll will be contributing almost 50% of their renewable wind generation. This in turn will be dwarfed by their proposed wind farm at Whitelees outside of Glasgow which at 322MW, when commissioned, will make it the largest wind farm in the world.
Argyll will play its part in this huge wind farm development as Vestas Celtic based in Kintyre will supply the wind turbines. The factory employs a workforce of over 200 and is the largest wind turbine manufacturing plant in the UK. Vestas Celtic are involved in supplying, erecting and maintaining wind turbines for both onshore and offshore developments and recently announced winning a further offshore 110 mEuro contract for the 90MW Barrow wind farm in Cumbria. This builds on the company's experience in the offshore market achieved during the construction and deployment of the UK's first offshore wind farm at North Hoyle in Wales.
The latest additions to the renewable energy family are the Biomass plants that are beginning to spring up around Argyll. These are mainly automated feed, wood chip burning boiler systems which produce heat either in the form of hot water or steam. These are mainly used to supply heat to central heating systems in place of traditional boiler systems or used to heat large amounts of water such as in public swimming pools. Local wood fuel supply chains have been set up with assistance from AIE and the Forestry Commission to service these existing installations in Lochgilphead and Campbeltown and for planned developments in Oban and on Islay. See our section on wood fuel for further detailed information.
There are now plans to develop Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems which will produce electricity (steam turbine) and hot water. The first of these in Argyll is a £8 million project planned for the Marine Resource Centre site at Barcaldine. The heat main which will be installed on the site as part of this proposal will be a catalyst for attracting industries that have a high requirement for inexpensive low grade heat and represents a further inward investment potential for Argyll.
In order for this type of development to continue Argyll needs further investment in its electricity grid infrastructure which is now nearing peak capacity. A planned reinforcement of the grid between Inveraray and Sloy will go some way towards this capacity increase but further steps will be needed to secure Argyll's place as a major producer of green electricity. This was highlighted earlier this year, along with a call for an Argyll wide strategic partnership between the public sector, renewable energy companies and utilities to benefit the whole area, in a submission by Argyll and Bute Council to the Enterprise and Culture Committee's Renewable Energy in Scotland inquiry. |
