Scotland's Eigg island to become completely self-sufficient in renewable energy

[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

[7952]

It also ignore transport. A single SUV could consume more power than the entire islands hydro scheme could generate.

[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...

[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.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

We're already generating nearly a third of our electricity from renewables here.

[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

[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.

[darklajid]

And 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]

>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.

[minimize_me]

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

[plehoux]

Quebec (~7 millions people) is at more than 90% green electricity, just saying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HQ_supplies_2007.svg

[ars]

Many 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.

[guiomie]

Hydroelectricity is renewable, but is it really green ?

[lifebeyondfife]

Article mentions The Pictish Trail (@PictishTrail) but omits his recently launched record label run from Eigg - http://lostmap.com/about/

Disclaimer: He's a friend and former bandmate from uni. His music is awesome.

[akinity]

Oh cool, Alt Soc?

[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.

[qwerta]

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

[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.