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Scotland's Eigg island to become completely self-sufficient in renewable energy
- arethuza 13y agoOne of the many fascinating things about Eigg is An Sgùrr - it's a (small) mountain made from a valley! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Sg%C3%B9rr_%28Eigg%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Sg%C3%B9rr_%28Eigg%29
- maaarghk 13y ago"58.72 ± 0.07 million years ago" - have to love that Wikipedian level of detail! That actually looks really cool. I wanted to visit Skye first but Eigg is looking pretty attractive.
- arethuza 13y agoThe "Small Isles" of Canna, Eigg, Muck and Rum have quite a lot of interesting geological stuff: http://www.lochabergeopark.org.uk/Pages/The_Small_Isles.asp http://www.lochabergeopark.org.uk/Pages/The_Small_Isles.asp
- darklajid 13y agoAnd I got back to the usual land of HN when I followed that link to the general page for these kind of mountains, arriving at "Inselberg" or .. "_Monad_nock". Interesting, thanks a lot :)
- marquis 13y ago>Islanders are used to rationing their power That is key.
- arethuza 13y agoThe mild temperatures there presumably help - I be surprised if they had many days above 25C or below 0C.
- gus_massa 13y agoThe article says that they cover the 90% of the energy from renewables. It’s not vey clear if it’s the 90% of the electricity or the 90% of all the energy requirements, where they should include cooking and heating. (Let’s forget about gasoline and diesel for transportation.) The Eigg island is part of the Inner Hebrides. According to Wikipedia, in this group of islands, in August the average hight is 15.7 °C (60.3 °F) and in February the average low is 2.2 °C (36 °F). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Hebrides#Climate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Hebrides#Climate . From the article: > On days that are really sunny - or, more likely, really wet or windy - Eigg Electric has a useful way for dealing with excess energy. "We have heaters in all the public spaces on the island, the two churches, the community centre, [the shop and café] down at the pier. So we put free heating into these buildings to keep the island's costs down and to keep the infrastructure of the buildings dry," says Scott. So, probably they don’t have air conditioning (or they don’t use it very much), and they are using a traditional no renewable energy source for heating.
- arethuza 13y agoI don't think I've ever been in a home in Scotland that has air-conditioning. A lot of people here think that 10C is the temperature you start wearing shorts and t-shirts (this is actually to be observed most Aprils when temperatures soar from the ~5C average we get over winter to the ~15C average we get the other 6 months).
- rmc 13y agoSo, probably they don’t have air conditioning Erm no. Air conditioning is not common in UK homes. What's much more likely is heating. I can't imagine a home not having heating in this part of Europe.
- arethuza 13y agoCareful modern designs can give you a "zero-heating" house - even in the North East of Scotland, which is a fair bit chillier than Eigg: http://www.ecbcs.org/docs/Annex_38_UK_Aberdeen.pdf http://www.ecbcs.org/docs/Annex_38_UK_Aberdeen.pdf [I own a property that is at the other end of the spectrum from a "zero-heating" house - we have parts that are effectively impossible to heat, so we don't even try.]
- qwerta 13y ago...while they pollute China where the solar panels and turbines are manufactured...
- nemesisj 13y agoThis isn't an isolated trend. Scotland as a country is targeting 100pct green energy by 2020, and should be at 50% by 2015. http://grist.org/list/scotland-100-percent-clean-energy-2020/ http://grist.org/list/scotland-100-percent-clean-energy-2020...
- JetSetWilly 13y agoIt is not targeting "100% clean energy". It is targeting "100% clean electricity". In Scotland, many times more energy in the typical household is consumed by non-renewable gas and oil, than by electricity. The 2020 target for renewable heat consumption is only 11% because that is a far more difficult and larger problem.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y agoWe're already generating nearly a third of our electricity from renewables here.
- minimize_me 13y agoApart from the part where it manufactures its own panels from its own resources.
- leoedin 13y agoThis is nice, but sort of masks the reality. Providing a comfortable amount of electricity to a home is easy. It takes a few hundred watts to light, perhaps a few kilowatts to heat (although I'd imagine at 21p/kWh most of the islanders use propane or wood) and then a few hundred watts for a TV or computer. They're not self-sufficient in energy. They're self sufficient in electricity generation, perhaps, but energy? All the really energy intensive processes that support their way of life - agriculture, manufacturing of goods - those are happening elsewhere. You can't simply equate household electricity usage with the average human's energy footprint, because the two are massively different. There's a tendency in the west to ignore the painful truth which is that our actions and consumption has far reaching consequences. Everything you buy has an energy footprint, and for many things it's one that we outsource to China. It's great to say "UK carbon output down x%", but if it's because we moved manufacturing offshore, did we really make a difference? It's easy to blame China for emissions while pointing at our renewables as evidence of how good we are, but the reality is that those emissions are often made to service our needs.
- timlukins 13y agoSo true - 100% electricity generation != 100% energy sufficiency. What opened my eyes to this was David MacKay's wonderful (free) book: http://www.withouthotair.com http://www.withouthotair.com
- leoedin 13y agoThat's a good recommendation! It's a fantastic book that does a great job of simplifying the energy equations into something understandable for most people. It really should be required reading for journalists and politicians dealing with this area. I think David MacKay was (for a while anyway) in some sort of scientific advice role for the government, but I can't imagine they listen to him very often...
- aaren 13y agoDavid MacKay is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. He's been in this role since 2009. Without hot air is excellent. Look at this page [1] which shows the rough average consumption of a household in the uk, including non electrical consumption. http://www.withouthotair.com/c18/page_103.shtml http://www.withouthotair.com/c18/page_103.shtml
- aghillo 13y agoIf you're interested in hacking Scottish islands, then check out Tiree Tech Wave.
- arethuza 13y agoYou should submit that to HN - looks rather cool.
- plehoux 13y agoQuebec (~7 millions people) is at more than 90% green electricity, just saying. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HQ_supplies_2007.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HQ_supplies_2007.svg
- guiomie 13y agoHydroelectricity is renewable, but is it really green ?
- TallGuyShort 13y agoIt's not burning fossil fuels and is siphoning energy out of natural cycles. Sounds green to me. Developing it impacts the environment, but I would imagine it's fairly comparable to the construction of wind power farms, etc.
- ars 13y agoMany people in Quebec heat with electricity since it's so cheap. Which is a horrible, and a real black mark on Quebec's environmental claims. They should heat with gas and ship the extra electricity to others instead of wasting it like this.
- lifebeyondfife 13y agoArticle mentions The Pictish Trail (@PictishTrail) but omits his recently launched record label run from Eigg - http://lostmap.com/about/ http://lostmap.com/about/ Disclaimer: He's a friend and former bandmate from uni. His music is awesome.
- akinity 13y agoOh cool, Alt Soc?
- ommunist 13y agoSolar panels have massive footprint, like leoedin already mentioned. The only way for islanders to be self-sufficient energetically is not to use electricity, and live in very small numbers. Sorry, technology is devastating. If not on your island, it will ruin landscapes somewhere else.