The Isle of Eigg off the west coast of Scotland has launched it’s own renewable energy supply grid, to have missed out on this fact you would have to be on a remote Scottish island, because Eigg has been all over the media today.
Eigg is one of my favorite, places on this planet, we’ve had some wonderful holidays there and I need no more excuse than that to repost some of our holiday snaps.
But I am under no illusion that it is always as bright and tranquil as these photos show, Eigg gets weather, lots of it and being so far north, darkness, lots of it. I’ve watched the sun never set from this beach, on the longest day, it was a bit of a party, the islanders of Eigg know how to party.
It’s remote, a tough place to live and a special place to live, until today they had to rely on a mix and match of generators, small wind generators and hydro power if they had it, they just juggled it along as best they could. We were discussing today if the launch of their ‘power grid’ would have got so much attention in the media if it had happened ten years ago, we suspect not; yesterday we took delivery of a tank of fuel oil for our central heating, the price per liter 41.9p, the lowest price we have paid was 08.9p this fact alone is more than enough to get everyone interested, even if the environmental issues don’t (and they should)
When we were on Eigg last May we took a look at the work that was going on to set up the system, a combination of wind, hydro and photovoltaic sources
I am delighted, that the islanders don’t have to go out into the teeth of a howling gale to jolly the generator along, I am in awe of how the they worked together to make sure what power they had was put to best use.
No longer will they have to bring fuel oil for power across on the ferry, at the flick of a switch they can have the power we all take for granted
And they are treading lightly on the Island and no matter how remote this place is, you don’t get a way from the fact, we are making a mess of the planet, it washes up on the beaches of Eigg with every tide
