Letters / Offshore wind farms may never materialise
The suspension of Russian gas makes it understandable Germany wishes to secure energy from offshore wind turbines located in their nearby German Bight, but electricity/hydrogen so generated has to be competitive with supplies competing against energy delivered from elsewhere.
More expensive heating and manufacturing lead to job losses and unemployment. The German government belatedly recognises that and have curtailed/suspended finance/subsidies to Uniper the German omnipotent importer which will question laying North Sea pipelines from Shetland.
Concurrent with the above the heavyweight Zero Banking Alliance (a consortium established at COP26 Glasgow 2021) in the pursuit of zero CO2, including five major International financial investment institutions have announced withdrawal of providing finance for offshore wind projects anywhere.
See: https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/big-banks-ditch-climate-alliance-6273692/
Consequently, it is unlikely that offshore turbine farms will be financed, built or located off Shetland, thus no electricity would be delivered from them to Sullom Voe Terminal and therefore its missing power cannot be used as justification for a second cable line from Shetland to Britain.
Naturally others such as SSE, the Greens, the SNP, Labour GB, energy secretary Ed Miliband et all will be disappointed, but there will already be surplus power in Shetland from the Viking project for the development of Shetland’s economy without the industrialisation threatened to east of Bressay.
About two years ago at a seminar in Aberdeen the “co-ordinator” of Shetland’s Orion project (since retired) was on a panel promoting an energy export line (hydrogen!) from the Sullom ‘hub’ down the North Sea to supply Europe.
A senior executive of SVT/SGP has also advocated a similar development to export many million tonnes of energy from Sullom which the offshore wind farms might provide, in addition to augmenting the energy from turbines within SVT complex.
Oh, what wishful thinking! Surely a case of the blind leading the blind led by their own propaganda.
However, the SIC, if agreeing to the latter, should not be coerced in agreeing to the former. With the above to consider, what is in the minds of the SIC and representatives on the Orion project?
What is Statkraft’s position in all this? Has their senior management, located abroad, informed their local representatives of Shetland’s concerns over it all – energy supplies from turbines ashore and afloat which may never materialise.
Their quest for more turbine sites and its associated business throughout Shetland may not be attractive to either them or Shetland if offshore turbines and its non-generated power is not available/not installed.
Shetland’s fishing industry should inform/instruct the MSP and MP to secure Holyrood and Westminster backing to deny the placing of any wind turbines offshore Shetland, and grant further local powers to the SIC in regard to the planning and approval of the onshore and offshore propositions,
Cecil Robertson
Inverness
