A Very Important Development

A new announcement as of today, from the BBC:


Islay to get major tidal power scheme

A major tidal energy project is to be built in the Sound of Islay off the west coast of Scotland.

The Scottish government has approved plans for 10 tidal turbines, which will generate enough electricity to power more than 5,000 homes.

Scottish Power Renewables is behind the scheme. It put forward plans to invest £40m installing the turbines in the waters off Islay, which offer strong tidal flows and shelter from storms. The required grid capacity to handle the array is also available in the area.

Finance and Sustainable Growth Secretary John Swinney 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.

"This development - the largest tidal array in the world - does just that and will be a milestone in the global development of tidal energy."

Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power Renewables, said: "Today's announcement moves the whole marine renewables industry forward in Scotland and the UK. "It is a first in terms of Marine Scotland approval for a tidal project in Scotland, and also a world first for an array of tidal power machines.

"The understanding we develop from Islay will be essential in delivering the larger planned projects in the Pentland Firth. The Islay project now looks set to be the world's first tidal power array and, once built, will triple the current capacity of marine energy projects in the UK.”

Islay could soon be dwarfed by that much larger scheme planned for the Pentland Firth, where there are proposals for 1,600 megawatts of production in the coming years, compared to Islay's 10-megawatt array.

Islay is important to me personally, as that's my family's homeland....