The commitment to green energy on the part of the SNP
and its leader, Alex Salmond, is a commendable line in the sand drawn as a bold
and progressive policy. The target of generating 100% of Scotland’s energy
needs from renewable sources by 2020 is an unprecedented ambition. But is it a
realistic aim? And will the benefits really be there when virtually every
commentator pours scorn on the vision of the nationalists?
Scotland has oil and gas aplenty so why in the name of
all that is sacred would we need to look to a mega-industrial scale version of
the life pursued by Tom and Barbara Good in their Surbiton semi? Why indeed. As
the informed gentlemen of the press continually tell us the oil and gas will be
gone in 10/20/100 (delete as appropriate) years so there is no point in basing
an economy on depleting resources.
Well OK, that sounds reasonable but how about if we
use those depleting resources hand-in-hand with resources that are sustainable
and renewable?
Hold on a minute, that’s not in the script!
And how about if at the same time we lessen our
reliance on the depleting resources so that the likelihood is that they will
last even longer than anticipated?
Now that’s just plain cheating!
Yes, we are a right bunch of cheats aren’t we?
The long and the short of it is that Scotland has a
rather unique position in Europe in that we are jutting out into the North
Atlantic at the mercy of the wind and the tides but these two massive forces of
nature are destined to become our very best friends. By reasons of geography
and connectivity we are best positioned to exploit the potential of these
gifts. The technology to best harness the wind and the tides is improving month
by month and subsidiary technologies are developing hand in hand with
this.
As one example there is a green brains trust tucked
away in Luxembourg working on various renewable options but their particular
Scottish option is a giant battery. This is something on the scale of a 20ft
container attached to a small wind turbine. The turbine generates electricity
when there is adequate wind and keeps the battery charged. When the wind goes
down the battery takes over and provides mains power until such a time as the
wind rises again. This scheme is designed as a replacement for diesel
generators for our islands so that small communities can become energy
self-sufficient. Can you imagine it? Batteries that can belt out mains
electricity.
Take a look to Methil and we have the Hydrogen Office.
This test-bed demonstrates that wind power can look after the generation of
electricity and excess capacity can be used to hydrolyse water to create
hydrogen gas. This stored hydrogen can then be burned in a heating system or
syphoned off and used to power vehicles. The beauty of hydrogen of course is
that when it is burned with oxygen the sole byproduct is water. Pure simple
water. From water to water with all the power in between.
When we gaze to the hillsides north of Dunblane as we
drive up the A9 and see the turbines stacked on the slopes as wind-farms we
only imagine the electrical power that they can send into the grid but we do
not contemplate what else they might be doing. Hydrogen farms? Why not? We
certainly have no shortage of water on those hills! Hydrogen farming might not
be as daft an idea as it sounds if we consider the common objection to
wind-farms that electrical transmission efficiency is not always suitable from
the more inaccessible locations in which they are located. Gas storage and
pipeline technology have their own limitations but not when it comes to moving
the product to a convenient distribution point.
Fuel cells continue to be prohibitively expensive and
this seems to be a non-starter in the motor vehicle stakes in any short- to
medium-term solution so this use for hydrogen is very limited. However burning
hydrogen in a modified orthodox internal combustion engine remains a clean and
efficient propulsion method. A “grid” of hydrogen stations across Scotland, fed
by local wind-farms, could offer an alternative to short-range rechargeable
vehicles with hydrogen-powered cars capable of traversing conventional motoring
distances without the need for an interim charge or a switch to petrol power to
complete the journey.
This connectability of a network of a renewable
resource is a quantum leap from the analogical thinking of hydrogen as a
difficult to handle fuel. Yes, granted, that can be the case if hydrogen has to
be delivered by tanker to point of sale but if production is localised then
this major objection can be overcome to a very great degree.
I have to unveil my true colours here. I am no
crusading super-green in any way shape or form. In fact in questionnaires I
tend to test as the polar opposite of that model of the modern 21st century
clean citizen. On the other hand I, like the vast majority of us, am feeling
the bite in terms of fuel bills and I am left slack-jawed by the impunity with
which consecutive UK governments lie to us about the true level of inflation.
For me renewable energy is an opportunity to bring down costs to more
manageable levels for the average punter at home in Buckie, Ballachulish or
Baillieston.
We are currently being wrung dry by Westminster and
the plain truth is that the tipping point where tax income starts to drop due
to fuel prices reaching a level where consumers will no longer buy with gay
abandon has passed. Already gross fuel duty income to the Treasury has started
to drop because fuel buyers simply cannot afford to buy the same amount of
petrol or diesel that they once could. This is a unidirectional trend as we
have been induced to be prudent and we will not be heading back towards profligacy
anytime soon. The answer from Osborne and Alexander — a veritable fiscal
Jedward — is to only promise to slow the inexorable fuel duty rise and even
this can only be accomplished as they have made a tax grab at source on the oil
producers in the North Sea and the East Shetland Basin.
Whether or not the people of Scotland choose to
separate from the UK at the upcoming referendum we need to consider the
long-term fix right now. We need to explore all avenues to make the 100% goal
by 2020 a realisable target. Nae-sayers in the mainstream media bombard us with
headlines stating the implausibility of the renewables target but the arguments
are almost universally thin and rarely if ever coherently constructed:
We can’t achieve a 50% target in renewables let alone
100%. Why not? Because.
But really, why not? Because I said so.
That is truly the sole scientific legitimacy of some
of the stuff that is printed in our national newspapers. It’s like a game of
“he said, she said” but unfortunately there is no robust player in our media
willing to counter this disinformative claptrap. The smear campaign being
insidiously leaked into the national consciousness is that green is loony, the
SNP is green, ergo the SNP is loony. If you do not buy that then take a look at
recent archives of The Scotsman and there is quite a head of steam being built
up in that direction — unattainable targets, untested technology,
unrealistic results and all with a political slant. It’s as if having an open
mind to renewable energy in Scotland is tantamount to tearing the Union
asunder.
This slander must be addressed in a robust manner and
a joined-up renewables strategy has to be presented to the people of this land
to underline that pervasive fuel poverty is not an inevitability but merely the
side-effect of an imposed Westminster policy which might as well have been
dreamt up by Jedward.
We have the power to decide
our own destiny in the palms of our hands or more accurately we will have it
through the nib of a pen in a few short years time but now is the time to act,
to coherently compose an energy roadmap which can only enhance the simple
buried truths of McCrone and give us confidence to declare that we are big
enough, we are clever enough and we have simply had enough!
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