A missed opportunity
Orkney gets wave power. These were being built at Arnish, and the wave farm was to have been constructed off the West Coast of Lewis, but the power can be fed into the grid via the connection at Dounreay.
Look's like we are on the back foot already...
Look's like we are on the back foot already...
6 comments:
Yup. Looks like a case of bad planning to me.
If we have truly missed this opportunity then it is a disaster for this community, and not something for snide remarks. Planning alone cannot make companies come here. If the infrastructure doesn't exist and if there are more convenient alternatives elsewhere, then business will go there.
We could become the renewables capital of Europe if the community so wanted, so to brush aside the opportunities from wave power is very short sighted.
My remark was not a 'snide remark' nor was it intended to be read as such: merely pointing out that Orkney seems to have got what it wanted without creating strife in the community, unlike here in Lewis. Proper consultations beforehand with the communities in Lewis would have helped. Orkney seems keen on wave power. Shetland appears to want its huge windpark. Lewis doesn't want the LWP windpark. There is no way the council can get round this fact.
Neither am I brushing aside the opportunities from wave power, on the contrary, I would like to see projects like this beginning here a.s.a.p.
The LWP windpark though is a different matter altogether - badly thought out, badly sited and unpopular from the outset, it will never be accepted by the islanders and could well have an overall negative effect on the island, in fact it already has, even though it's still only on paper!
Personally, if I wanted to invest £££millions into an economy, the Western Isles wouldn't be it. Yes it is a beautiful place but it is full of people who find it impossible to think forwards instead trying to ensure that nothing ever changes, whilst everyone else just passes them by. Orkney and Shetland have much better tourism industries than us AND they are investing in wind and wave technologies, yes you can have it all if you just have the will to make it happen.
so... orkney doesn't have wind farms...?
According to the BWEA, there are 10 turbines operational in Orkney rated at 18.6 MW.
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