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The MeyGen project jointly owned by Tidal Power Scotland and Scottish Enterprise has just recorded electricity generation at 1 GWh which is sufficient for 700 000 homes! 700 000! Now we’ve already heard that wind power has several times now produced more than 100% of our total energy needs and that there is enough gas west of Shetland to do the same. It’s beginning to look as if we are going to be so energy rich, we’ll have to export huge amounts to our larger and more energy-starved neighbours like England, Germany and France.
‘Scotland Sets [Another] New Wind Power Record’
I must assume that if Scottish Enterprise co-own the field, some of the revenue comes straight to the Scottish Government? Either way, this level of energy wealth with more to come must make Scotland one of the most energy-rich countries in the world. I haven’t even mentioned the likely resurgence of oil prices by 2020. If this does not enrich our economy it will be because that revenue is diverted to London or not properly taxed and thus stolen by the corporations.
Independence is the only solution to this.
Talking-up Scotland 
Who knows John we might even have enough from renewables to consider leaving the oil & gas where they belong- underground
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Good point
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It could but only with independence as the Westminster government will make sure that we are not.
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Oil is definitely a natural resource that we should carefully husband, and keep as much as possible in the ground as possible – for future generations – burning it up as fast as possible until it’s gone and whole ecosystems dead because of that burning is irresponsible. But it is an incredibly versatile substance and used in many different applications, so I can’t see its extraction stopping any time soon. Definitely if we can be powering our homes and industry using renewables, that will reduce the use of oil and gas and, as the name suggests, renewables won’t ever run out!
Careful management could see us gradually get less and less reliant on the limited resource of oil and gas, and the more we keep back, the more it will be worth in the future after the rest of the world has finished their frenetic burning of a precious, and very useful, resource. I’ve read comments and blogs (was it Grousebeater? He does love the electric car) that say the oil industry has stifled innovation over the decades to keep demand & prices high. Just shows how we need good government to control the greedy vagaries of private companies, not allow them free rein.
The more renewable resources we have, as a country, and more variety in renewable sources, the more independent we are. I think the power grid is still a reserved matter (?), so this is still an issue to getting a fully integrated distribution system – I am not sure about this, because there is that big power cable they are laying between Scotland and Norway (using EU funding) – so, whose is that? I’m beginning to wonder if part of my desire for the dissolution of the union is due to the need I have for simplicity – it drives me mad, the fudge between devolved/reserved issues, it is nearly impossible to know how much we can or cannot do because of this fudge, our whole country is stifled by the control from elsewhere, and it seems a totally pointless complexity. Let Scotland determine its own matters, sorted, simple, then we can know who is responsible for what.
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Yes, well-made argument.
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Prof Robertson,thank you so much = )
Your ‘Talking Up Scotland’ fills my heart 🙂
I remember in the the recent past few years when these projects seemed so wildly innovative and hopeful. I never expected them to become so viable so quickly! Aren’t our engineers brilliant! (my younger son is an engineer and very brilliant!)
Here’s more good news. Rev Stu’s latest article on Wings Over Scotland ‘Magic Money Rigs’.
Enjoy = )
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Thanks Ghillie; much apprecaited.
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Ghillie, your comment is inspirational 🙂
So much so I’m going to re-post my comment (warts and all) to John I wrote last night on an article further down the list,,, it is titled, ‘I’m Telling Ye, John,,,’ (and unsurprisingly overly verbose) ~~
I really am astounded at the amount of positive news about Scotland you are finding. It really makes you think long and hard about the amount of effort the Scottish media put into nearly only reporting the bad. I mean, originally I thought there would be the occasional wee snippet of fairly good news (young boy saves small kitten from drowning, level of news), and thought some things could be stretched into the good news category (Wir nae daein’ tae bad like, sort of stuff), but see when you see all the actual real live positive achievements that are happening all over Scotland, and especially when you put a list together for previous months, it really hits home that, in actual fact, Scotland is doing WELL; the economy is strong, we are building a good international reputation, that businesses and the government in Scotland work WELL together, that our public services are doing well (under the circumstances, of UK cuts. And I have really high hopes for the Scottish government’s new integrated health and social care policies), and that we really are a progressive country. These are all the things you don’t get from the usual media suspects.
Knowing all these things, from your hard-worked blog John 🙂 , means that we can laugh in the face of any and all reports that insult Scotland and her people – because we now KNOW they are just insults, gossamer on the wind. And I do now actually laugh out loud at radio Scotland when I bother to pay attention, I don’t worry about what they are reporting on any more. And it really puts into context just exactly how much some politicians are trying to do us down – it’s like labour need us to be, and try and make sure we are, in dire straights (straits?) so they can get votes for their barely half-hearted ‘socially progressive’ policies that we don’t need when doing okay – and the conservatives,,, well they are as thick as mince really, braying ‘no change is best’ while grinding us down with austerity, and, well,,, changing things. But only for the worse. Odd. Just knowing there are tons of good things happening out there, and that our Scottish government are, in fact, introducing successful policies, makes it very plain that other party’s politicians are at best incompetent, and, at worst, really do wish us harm. A disappointing state of affairs, but you have to be realistic, and we should be distancing ourselves from people that take pleasure from wishing harm on us. There will always be those kind of people, we just need the confidence to ensure they don’t cause any harm (any more).
So every piece of positive news counts, it adds to the whole ‘confidence in ourselves’ ethos, makes it plain that it isn’t ONLY oil that gives us any standing/money/economy – it is ALL aspects of our society that has some strength. And so, if there are any disappointing snippets or results out there we hear about, we are stronger for knowing it is not the norm, we know we are capable of fixing it – because we have a strong base to work from. The effect may be subtle at first, but I’m telling you, seeking out only the positive news and gathering it here can only have good results. People will start believing in themselves, then believing in their fellows, then believing in their country. From that confidence, a country will be reborn. ~~
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Brilliant, thanks!
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I think you’re perhaps confusing aggregate power generated to date with planned power output and the presently installed power output.
As I understand it, the capacity of the turbines is 1.5mw each and I believe that four are currently installed for a combined output of 6mw. According to Atlantis Resources, this is enough to power 2,600 homes. I believe the plan is to progressively increase this to 398mw installed capacity by 2021 which should be enough to power around 300,000 homes.
https://www.atlantisresourcesltd.com/projects/meygen/
There are other tidal schemes being planned and installed elsewhere in Scotland which may well take planned output to 1gw in due course but the Meygen project, as currently scoped, won’t achieve that target.
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Hi, thanks
got my figures from
https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/147149/meygen-project-produces-enough-power-700000-homes/
and
https://www.atlantisresourcesltd.com/2017/08/09/1gwh-generation-exported-grid-meygen-p1a/
John
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It’s a technically correct but very misleading claim. What it’s really saying is that, in the year or so since power was first generated by Meygen, it has produced enough electricity, in aggregate, to power 700,000 homes for one hour. The figures I quoted are a more realistic representation of the current and potential future output of Meygen.
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