
Scotland's Eigg island to become completely self-sufficient in renewable energy - lelf
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/greenest-island-world-201412783012455475.html
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leoedin
This 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
So 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
That'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
David 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)

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nemesisj
This 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
It 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.

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arethuza
One 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
"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
The "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)

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marquis
>Islanders are used to rationing their power

That is key.

~~~
arethuza
The mild temperatures there presumably help - I be surprised if they had many
days above 25C or below 0C.

~~~
gus_massa
The 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.

~~~
rmc
_So, 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
Careful 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.]

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minimize_me
Apart from the part where it manufactures its own panels from its own
resources.

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plehoux
Quebec (~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
Hydroelectricity is renewable, but is it really green ?

~~~
TallGuyShort
It'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.

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lifebeyondfife
Article 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
Oh cool, Alt Soc?

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aghillo
If you're interested in hacking Scottish islands, then check out Tiree Tech
Wave.

~~~
arethuza
You should submit that to HN - looks rather cool.

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qwerta
...while they pollute China where the solar panels and turbines are
manufactured...

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ommunist
Solar 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.

