Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands into a European renewable energy giant, producing more power than it knows what to do with. The tidal-power underwater turbines that were completed last month are only the latest green energy project for an archipelago that has been reliant for decades on the North Sea offshore industry. Even homeowners are getting in on the act with small wind turbines in their gardens and solar panels on their roofs – somewhat optimistically in an area where winter daylight lasts just six hours. “We are not 100 percent self-sufficient but we are quite a long way toward it,” Jim Dickson, 69, told AFP at his home in the village of Brae, referring to electricity generation for his own house. Dickson, who lives near the Sullom Voe oil terminal, can power the building and an electric-powered Nissan Leaf car from a turbine in his garden with enough left over to feed into the island’s grid when conditions are favourable.
Scottish Energy News 27th Feb 2017 read more »