Source: BBC Radio 4: Costing the Earth
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05v7tqq
Date: 20/05/2015
Event: Costing the Earth: Electric Island
Credit: BBC Radio 4
People:
[Sound of seagulls in the distance.]
Tom Heap: I'm just waiting for a ferry over to the island of Eigg, on the west coast of Scotland. The hundred or so people there have been doing something extraordinary with their electricity supply, and that news has now reached the United Nations. In fact, it's reached the ear of Dr. Kandeh Yumkella from Sierra Leone, who runs the UN's Sustainable Energy for All project.
Kandeh Yumkella: Sustainable Energy for All has one goal, which is to secure and ensure affordable, reliable, modern energy services for all. It's almost one third of mankind that do not have reliable, affordable, modern energy services, around the world. We have seen that the Scottish government is committed to low-carbon transitions. We have seen that they're investing in clean energy solutions around the world, but the fact that they were interested in clean energy, and distributive power in particular, I felt we could have some partnerships.
Tom Heap: Lindsay Leask from the trade body Scottish Renewables is helping to build that link.
Lindsay Leask: It's a really interesting story. So originally Ban ki-Moon himself approached Alex Salmond, when he was the First Minister, and said "You know, Scotland's doing some fantastic things in renewable energy. What can we learn from you? You've got to have things that you can add to this initiative". And, of course, Alex said "Yes, we do." We're doing brilliant stuff, and there's a huge variety of lessons that we think Scotland can give to the rest of the world, about renewable energy, about energy efficiency and getting energy into really remote communities, off-grid rural communities that rely on expensive diesel generators, for example. And Eigg is a classic example of that sort of community.
[Sounds of safety announcement over ferry PA system.]
Tom Heap: I'm on the ferry over to the island of Eigg right now, and I was hoping to give you a description of what it looks like, as it rises from the sea. However, the weather's pretty awful - the boat's pitching and rocking, I can see a grey sky on top of a grey sea, and the visibility is down to a mile, so I can't see anything of the island itself. But what I can see in front of me is proof that Eigg is having an impact around the world. And that proof in front of me is a group of international students who've come to see what's going on, on this small Scottish island. So first of all, just tell me your name and where you're from.
Male student: I am Maime Zuna [?] from Nigeria.
Ebimene Ebisine: Ebisine Ebimene from Nigeria.
Female student: I'm from Barcelona, Spain.
Camella Bailey: I'm Camella Bailey from Jamaica.
Male student: I'm Michele from Italy.
Male student: Christian Owe [?] from Nigeria.
Tom Heap: And last in the line - and I'll introduce him - is David Rodley, who teaches renewable energy at Dundee University. David, why are you bringing them out here?
David Rodley: Well, we've been bringing students out to Eigg, especially from our Masters programme in renewable energy, since 2008, which was the year that Eigg first switched their supply on. And I have to confess, the first time I came out to Eigg I was completely gobsmacked by the - what they'd actually managed to achieve on the island, in terms of creating their own renewable electricity. And for these students, it's a unique opportunity to come and see something actually working, renewable, providing cheap, reliable, green electricity to people who have never had it before.
Tom Heap: So, what are you hoping to see on Eigg, any of you? What are you hoping to get from it?
Camella Bailey: To get on Eigg, to see how things really operate, just to get that practical exposure.
Tom Heap: Is it something you're hoping might have - be able to set an example to communities in Jamaica?
Camella Bailey: Absolutely. I think for me, my concern is that we live in a country where we import 96% of oil, which costs the country a whole lot, in terms of oil importation. So we live where there's an abundance of sunshine and wind and I want to be able to go back to have that sort of impact, to see how best we can - you know, I can support the existing renewable energy programme in Jamaica.
Tom Heap: Apparently they've got solar panels here, and if they can have them here under this weather, you can sure have them working in Jamaica.
Camella Bailey: Absolutely.
Tom Heap: Ferry's just approaching the pier here on the island of Eigg - that noise you can hear [creaking noise] is the mooring ropes on the ferry being stretched to the point where I fear they might snap, because the wind is really howling, it's blowing side-on to the ferry, it's being blown away from the jetty. The guys here are very skilled - whenever they get any slack in the rope, they're pulling it in, gradually inching the ferry closer and closer to the jetty. There's plenty of energy in the weather today - mostly wind. The island itself is about 5 by 4 miles, thereabouts, with a hundred or so people and a road running down the middle. Hello - would you be John Booth?
John Booth: I might indeed.
Tom Heap: I'm Tom Heap - nice to see you.
John Booth: We spoke earlier.
Tom Heap: Thanks for having us on here, yeah, you were giving me guidance about whether the ferry'd be running, in this weather. We got here.
John Booth: Well, yeah, they switched it from green to orange - it's a warning that the thing might be cancelled at short notice. So... we could walk to the tea-rooms.
Tom Heap: John Booth is one of the movers and shakers who was here from the beginning of this energy revolution. John, what is it that's unique about Eigg?
John Booth: We derive power from three renewables, which we integrate into a stable grid that is - provides power to everyone 24 hours a day - that's unique. That was unique when we started it, so it was a world first. We have three hydro-electric generators, we have a small wind farm of four wind generators, and sun, we have an array of solar panels that generate photovoltaic electricity.
Tom Heap: And people are coming from across the world to see it.
John Booth: We have people from all over the world - from Alaska, from Pitcairn, from utilities as well as private operators.
Tom Heap: Quite an achievement - I look forward to seeing how it works... We've just walked up to the solar panels, which do look a little bit forlorn right now. There's a leaden grey sky, a howling wind and rain lashing in my face. But, just over to my right, a couple of miles away, you can see a big patch of sun, glinting off the sea, and some blue sky over there. It kind of shows the importance of mixing your renewables here, because they all rely on different elements, and especially here in the Scottish islands, you get a lot of change between all of them. John, I can see the typical angled banks of solar panels here - how much have you got?
John Booth: We've got just over 50 kilowatts' worth - it's actually 53 and a half kilowatts. All of the arrays are angled at 30 degrees - they're static arrays, they're angled at 30 degrees facing south, and that gives the best exposure to the sun throughout the year.
Tom Heap: And they really work here, do they? This isn't just an example of a sort of green bling, a bauble?
John Booth: No, no. No, they really work. It's in the summer months, when we get little rain and we get relatively little wind, that these really come into their own, and they can be producing their full capacity from 8 in the morning until maybe 6 or 7 in the evening. Because we get very long days in the summer.
Tom Heap: And at times like that, what proportion of the energy - of the island's electricity might they be - ?
John Booth: These, now - this 50 kilowatts' worth will more than run the island all day.
Tom Heap: Has the renewable electricity had any impacts on the island, sort of, outside of just, you know, energy, in a sense?
John Booth: I believe it has - the population has grown quite significantly, over the past few years, from around 65, when we first came, to around 100, now. There's been a lot of new house-building.
Tom Heap: And why do you think the energy has had a part in attracting people to live here?
John Booth: I think there are genuinely a lot of people who would like to live more greenly than it is possible to do, on the mainland.
Tom Heap: There is something different about the way this island is owned that makes it a little bit unique as well, isn't there.
John Booth: Yes, I mean, the island moved into community ownership in 1997, so since then, its future has been in the hands of the people who live here.
Tom Heap: So there's no big - big laird?
John Booth: No, there's no laird, and all the people who live on the island hold the island in trust for the future. In a sense, we're a democratic land [?] [To the driver of the car] Can you stop here a moment, John? Sorry... I said I would show you a residue of the old way of things. [Sound of car doors opening and closing.] So, in the shed here, I still keep a Lister generator, that I had when we first came to the island, to produce power, because I learned that everybody had to generate their own power.
Tom Heap: John's just brought us into the shed, and there's a lot of old drums of diesel here, plenty of paint cans and wires hanging around, typical shed, if you don't mind my saying, and that generator itself is about the size of an oil drum, maybe a little bit bigger - a green Lister diesel.
John Booth: It's a 5-kilowatt Lister.
Tom Heap: And something like this is what everyone on the island used to rely on, if they wanted to have electric light.
John Booth: When we first came to the island, there was nowhere where you couldn't hear the clank-clank-clank of the generator running. You only have it on during the evening hours of darkness - that means you don't have any power for the rest of the day, so it makes it difficult to have a fridge or a freezer. And then, when you think, if you're people like other people on the island and have children, if you need to get up in the night to the child, you either have a good torch, a good lantern or you come up from the house to here and crank this thing up, to start it.
Tom Heap: So before you had a grid here, it was a bit of a constant headache.
John Booth: It was a constant, it was a constant headache - it was hard work, providing your own electricity.
[Sound of car engine idling.]
John Booth: The lighthouse there is at Ardnamurchan Point. And beyond the lighthouse is the Isle of Mull. And next to the Isle of Mull -
Tom Heap: John has brought the students and us up to where the wind turbines are, and it is a very good spot for them. The blades are absolutely screaming round, the top of most are about 10 metres high. There are three of them here - a fourth one is down for repair, and it's such a great spot because the wind comes in from the west, can probably come all the way from America, and directly in front of me, I can see the Treshnish Islands, a little bit of Mull in the distance, and even a tanker making its way across some pretty choppy seas today... As we walk between the different power sources here, I'm just going to take a chance to talk to some of the students. Just remind me of your name?
Ebimene Ebisine: Ebisine.
Tom Heap: Ebisine, and you're from Nigeria, is that right?
Ebimene Ebisine: Yeah.
Tom Heap: And tell me about where you're from, in Nigeria - what's it like, there?
Ebimene Ebisine: Currently, like from the village where I'm from, they have a generator system, which they use currently. They have a 250KVA generator, which they use for a couple of hours during the evenings.
Tom Heap: And those are diesel generators.
Ebimene Ebisine: Yes.
Tom Heap: So you only have electricity for a few hours a day.
Ebimene Ebisine: Yes.
Tom Heap: How big a problem is that?
Ebimene Ebisine: That's a really big problem.
Tom Heap: What can you learn from a system like this? What - what are you seeing that you think could help in Nigeria?
Ebimene Ebisine: This system, it's showing our community efforts can actually resolve a problem - not just sitting back, relaxed, waiting for the government, in most cases, where the government provides suitable policies that will encourage communities to come together and try and sort out some issues they have.
Tom Heap: Obviously, you're seeing a lot of engineering here, but is the way the community has come together - is that, kind of, an important lesson, as well?
Ebimene Ebisine: Yeah, it's a key lesson, because this system is working today because the community came together, in agreement, to do this, because they treat it as their own. We humans have this tendency of keeping what we feel is ours very well, and something that is not ours a little bit not as good to us [?] so -
Tom Heap: We don't care about it as much, yeah.
Ebimene Ebisine: Yes, it's their own system.
Tom Heap: So how you get that team effort is the key.
Ebimene Ebisine: Yes - is the key.
Tom Heap: This is Costing the Earth on BBC Radio 4 and today we're on the island of Eigg, one of the Inner Hebrides, but a place that's really setting an example for the whole world about how we could deliver huge proportions of our electricity from renewable sources, and really make it work.
[Sound of running water.]
Tom Heap: We've walked about a couple of miles, along a path through woodland and across the moors, and come to a place that is really the biggest of all the generators. David, what am I looking at here - is this where all that rain does its work?
David Rodley: It is indeed, Tom - this is part of the Laig Hydroelectric Scheme. It's a run-of-river scheme, so we're standing next to the weir, and the weir is a concrete structure that dams the river. You can see, just below us, there's the pipework which takes the water from the stream and passes it down the hillside to a turbine house, which is about a kilometre from here, but it's - it goes down a 100-metre drop, and that 100-metre drop is the crucial thing for developing a head of pressure, down at the bottom, which will drive the turbines.
Tom Heap: Do you have any idea how much it cost to put in?
David Rodley: The general rule of thumb, for a system of this size, is approximately £4 per watt.
Tom Heap: Right.
David Rodley: So it'll be about 400,000. But a lot of that effort, on this scheme, was put in by the islanders themselves. So the access tracks, the weir, construction of the turbine house - all of that was done locally. So that is what you might call the "sweat equity" of the job.
Tom Heap: "Sweat equity" - I like that. Has there been a lot of that used, on - overall? For the -
David Rodley: Well, I think the estimate's somewhere close to half a million pounds' worth of effort by the locals.
Tom Heap: That really helps to get ownership - if you've quite literally put your sweat into it, then you've got some pride in it.
David Rodley: This is it - absolutely, this is a genuinely communal effort, to develop this scheme. And they're, justifiably, extremely proud of what they've accomplished here.
Tom Heap: But when we're talking about those kind of sums of money, and this is just one of the projects, I mean, this couldn't have been done by the locals on their own, could it - it needs outside funding.
David Rodley: The Big Lottery Fund provided over 300,000, European Regional Development Fund were the biggest single funders of the project, and numerous other smaller pots of money - the cost of bringing that electricity from the mainland through the National Grid was very prohibitive, because it's Small Isles, and it is far cheaper, actually, to build a renewable energy system like this than to try and connect people to the Grid.
Tom Heap: How much were you quoted for that connection?
David Rodley: Well, I believe the figure was somewhere in the region of £5 million, to bring an undersea cable across.
[Sound of kettle boiling.]
Tom Heap: We've had a look at how the electricity's produced here, but what about the way it's used? There are some restrictions for households here on Eigg, and I've taken the excuse to be invited in for a cup of tea by Ailidh Morrison, who lives here. And she's just popped the kettle on. Um, are there some times when you can't put the kettle on, Ailidh?
Ailidh Morrison: If we're low on green energy, we're all advised of that first thing in the morning by a reminder by email. And we're just a bit more self-aware about what we're putting on and how we're using it.
Tom Heap: And what is the limit you work under?
Ailidh Morrison: We work - each residential house gets 5 kilowatts, so that would be a kettle, an immerser would take you up to 5 kilowatts, and anything with an element is 2.5 kilowatts.
Tom Heap: Right, so that's just about to come to the boil, that taking a big 2.5 kilowatts -
Ailidh Morrison: That's 2.5 kilowatts to run, yeah.
Tom Heap: Right.
Ailidh Morrison: If I had that on and then I tried to put on a toaster and the immerser on at the same time, my leccy would flip off and I'd have to ask the leccy boys to come and switch it back on.
Tom Heap: Right.
Ailidh Morrison: Get a rap on the knuckles for going over 5 kilowatts, but it very rarely happens.
Tom Heap: And you've been here for 8 years or so, you used to visit in the time when when there were just generators.
Ailidh Morrison: Yes.
Tom Heap: What was it like, before they had the grid here?
Ailidh Morrison: You always had to remember to switch it off at night, so - even things like you had to remember to take your DVDs playing, you had to remember to press the DVD out before you put the genny off, otherwise you couldn't get it out, and then you'd forget about that the next morning when you had to take the DVD back to the library. And it was much noisier - you could drive down the Bealach Clith - the road in the hill that comes down to Cleadale here, where we live now, and you'd be able to hear the gennies, because it goes like an echo right round the cliffs. So it was a much noisier place to live, when you were walking about - you couldn't hear birdsong.
Tom Heap: So how much of a problem is it, this 5-kilowatt restriction?
Ailidh Morrison: It's no problem at all. I've never had that kind of problem with it. I've only done it a couple of times, and that's when I still had the toaster, because yeah, I put the kett- yeah, because the kettle's 2.5, the toaster's 2.5. So you can have those both on at the same time, so if I had my immerser on in the morning, and go - oh, I've put that on to have a bath later, and think oh, I'll make my breakfast, tea and toast - boom. Out. That's it off.
Tom Heap: That's interesting because you're very knowledgeable about the wattage of these devices. If I asked most people on the mainland, they would have no idea what their kettle or their toaster or indeed their fridge took, they - people just don't have to think about it, whereas you do, at least at the beginning, have to think about it and then - it becomes second nature?
Ailidh Morrison: That's what - we had to learn. So, literally, we did have stickers - just stuck stickers on everything, so that we knew. You know, within six months, you just become really aware of what it is you're using.
Tom Heap: So what would you say to someone who's listening on the mainland and thinking "Oh, it sounds a bit of a drag, having any restriction on the electricity I can use - I like to just sort of flick and forget". What do you say?
Ailidh Morrison: I'd say you'd have to look at the bigger picture, you know. I mean, I'm a big believer in community-owned businesses and social enterprise, anyway. Our Green Grid is green - I think last year we did 98% on green, renewable energy, which means we only took 2% of an entire island, an entire - you know, 47 homes - was run by diesel, which has a huge impact on the world at large, if we're talking about saving our planet, due to global warming.
Tom Heap: Do you feel this is your system? Do you feel ownership over the whole thing?
Ailidh Morrison: Oh, very much so. It's another example of Eigg being held in trust, a community trust. We don't own the land ourselves, just for us, you know, for selfish reasons - we're holding it in trust. And what we've done, what John has designed, what the community has supported and then engendered, is a system that should be able to continually supply electricity which has allowed the expansion of the population on the island, an expansion of businesses and growth of economy on the island. I don't think you can get a better gift than that, from a guy who actually came here to retire.
You've got to remember, John didn't come here to design this, he wasn't, like, pulled in for a job, he wasn't said "Oh well, you're an amazing designer" - he came here to retire, got involved and then designed this system, the like of which has not actually been seen, world-wide, before. So we're incredibly lucky that he chose Eigg as a retirement place. You've met him - he's got an awful lot of energy, the boy - I don't think that man will ever stop. So yeah, I think it is ours, this - designed by an islander, it's run by islanders, it's used by islanders, and the benefit comes straight back to the community - not like your major power companies. It's ours - we're independent.
[Sound of walking.]
Tom Heap: The problem with renewable energies is that nearly all of them are dependent on the vagaries of the weather, and it doesn't come vaguer than here in the Western Isles. So, you do need some kind of storage. There are times when the wind won't blow, it's been very dry and there ain't no sun neither. And that is where this room comes in.
[Sound of door opening.]
Tom Heap: The room that John's opened up is about the size of a large living room. And on the floor are about a hundred batteries. They're bright red, I suppose they're about the size of a sort of kitchen bin, thereabouts, and in serried ranks of 24 each, four ranks of those. John, just first of all, I'm wondering immediately - how much did this cost?
John Booth: At the time that these batteries were installed, they cost about 65,000.
Tom Heap: Why are these needed, and what are they doing?
John Booth: First of all, they act as a storage, in that they can take up power from the system and give power back to the system - it's an immediate flow back and forth, they're connected directly to the island grid. So whenever our renewable resources are producing less power than the island is consuming, power can flow out of the batteries, and when the renewable resources are producing more power than the island can use, then power flows into the batteries.
Tom Heap: Also with us in the room is the chap who's brought the students here, David Rodley from Dundee University. Um, I'm getting a clue from it here, but how critical is storage to the whole renewable energy story, when you're trying to make it a viable system for people to use?
David Rodley: Well, it's absolutely critical because, unlike the traditional means of generation, you can't just flick a switch and expect to get power coming through your plug. So the batteries offer this critical role that they can smooth the output of the system, they can respond to minute changes in the load being put on the system. It's an enabler - it allows people to have this 24-hour, 7-days-a-week power, without any disturbance due to fluctuations in the wind or the sun or the rain.
Tom Heap: Even this £60,000 backup plan is sometimes not enough. Around the back of the control shed is their dirty little secret. Not sure if it's fair to call it the guilty secret, but there are two big diesel generators in front of me here.
John Booth: The system provides about 90% of our power from renewables, so the generators are not called on a great deal, and it is our constant aim to eliminate them.
Tom Heap: And when in the year do they most often come on -
John Booth: They mostly come on in the summer, summer months. That's -
Tom Heap: That's because the hydro is such a big thing, and it rains less - is that it?
John Booth: It, it - we actually do get very good summers here. We can get long periods, six weeks without rain, it's very, very common - the months of June, July and August, quite often, most of the streams dry up on the island.
Tom Heap: Just as we're talking, we're all putting our hoods up [laughter] because we hear the rain coming down on our coats!
John Booth: But also, the -
Tom Heap: But those times of year are good for the tourists but not so good for renewable energy.
John Booth: Very good for the tourists - it is sunny.
Tom Heap: But I guess driving through that last 10%, 5%, as you get to the 1%, could end up being incredibly expensive, couldn't it - the, sort of, getting to the very end could be very pricey.
John Booth: It would be, if we carried on increasing, say, the amount of renewables of the type we've already got. In order to eliminate the generator here on Eigg, we need to look to a fourth technology. We are actively looking at the sea, and we are actively looking at the possibility of using hydrogen, generating hydrogen in the winter months when we have a surplus of power to produce electricity in the summer months when we have a deficit.
Tom Heap: We've seen the three sources of energy - the solar, the hydro and the the wind, and we've also seen the battery store and some of the engineering that goes on to make it all work in a modern-day grid. So things are good, here, but both David and John feel they could be even better. How?
John Booth: We have it well in hand to become a carbon-free electrical generator. And I think it is actually feasible, within a community of this size, given the will of the community and the interest in doing so, that we could move into a carbon-free future.
Tom Heap: Electric cars, as well? I mean, the roads are pretty short so you shouldn't get, what do they call it, "range anxiety" here [laughter], as long as you charge it up.
David Rodley: That's right, and there have been trials of electric vehicles here - there's one on the island, as we speak. And in the future we may go down the road of trialling hydrogen fuel-cell cars, if there's a hydrogen storage available on the island. And then, as John says, we can get into other areas like heating, which are currently mostly fossil-fuel. But the exciting thing is that the infrastructure is there, and the renewables are there, the system is well-understood, it's robust and it's scalable. And it's also transferable, so a lot of the technology that's been applied on the Isle of Eigg has spread out like a ripple on a pond to the other islands, the other Small Isles and beyond.
Tom Heap: I wonder how relevant their experience really is to communities in the developing world. I asked Dr. Yumkella from the United Nations and Lindsay Leask from the industry body Scottish Renewables.
Kandeh Yumkella: Yes, that fits very well. In fact, what they're doing is integrated energies, clean energy solutions. And we need that for the small island states. You have over 40 small island states in the Pacific, in the Caribbean, also along our own African coast, that can benefit from those technologies.
Lindsay Leask: I'd love to see Scotland's expertise in renewable energy rolling out to the developing world on a much bigger scale. Eigg has managed - the first place in the world to combine hydro, wind, solar and energy storage in one system and run it off its own grid system. And that's a great example of what we can learn from Scotland, and very specifically what we can learn from Eigg.
Kandeh Yumkella: In Africa, where we have the most serious energy poverty, there are many small communities that cannot be connected to the grid. Those communities can connect biomass, bioenergy with sun or small hydropower to power growth and economic prosperity in their communities. So the Isle of Eigg example will be super for some parts of the world.
Tom Heap: The technical and engineering achievements on Eigg, to harness the elements all around us, are impressive. But it is the climate of opinion here that's really unique. The hundred or so people are all in this together. They actually own Eigg Electric, and they feel it. That's the secret - the power comes from the people.
John Booth: One of the things I like about this system is that, you know, we did it, the island. You know, a load of ordinary people. It's ours, we run it, we maintain it, we manage it and it works.