Talking-up Scotland

‘Scotland has provisionally experienced its equal-wettest June on record (shared with 1938) with 156mm of rainfall, 75% above its average for the month….Many parts of southern and eastern Scotland have received over twice the normal June rainfall.’  

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2017/wet-and-warm-june-comes-to-a-close

I doubt many of us needed the metoffice to tell us this news yet according to the Scottish Institute for Solar Energy Research it is worth installing solar power generation in Scotland. See this:

‘Installing solar power in Scotland is beneficial even though it doesn’t receive as much solar irradiation as somewhere like Africa, India or Southern Europe. Looking at the solar irradiation map, we can see that the solar irradiance in the UK and Scotland is not too dissimilar to Germany – the largest photovoltaic (PV) market in the world, which had 24.7 GW of PV installed at the end of 2011 (European Photovoltaic Industry Association: EPIA Market Report 2011).’

See the map above for evidence of this. Further, see this pie chart below as evidence of just how significant an element solar power could be though this is for the UK as a whole so the ratio of solar to wind power would be a bit different. However, latitude is not the only factor and the report from Siser reveals that: ‘some installations in Scotland, like the ones in the Dundee/Aberdeen area, regularly perform just as well as installations down south. Interestingly in April and May installations on the west coast also performed as well as some in Cornwall.’

Also, the quality of the installation may be more significant than the actual amount of ‘solar irradiance.’ So a top quality installation in Dundee could generate more than a lower quality one in Essex.

I know, we’ve already got more wind, tidal and carbon-based resources than we could possibly use but we can sell the surplus.

http://www.siser.ac.uk/solar-in-scotland

I’ve already reported twice on Orkney’s giant tidal turbine, the world’s most powerful. Now it has been recognised and praised by a EU delegation visiting the facility.

Orkney’s giant tidal turbine is the world’s most powerful

It has already broken the world record for a devoice of its kind:

‘A floating tidal turbine has smashed generation records in Scotland, matching the generation capacity of offshore wind turbines. The SR2000, designed by Scotrenewables Tidal Power, is the world’s largest and most powerful tidal device. The machine is currently undergoing grid-connected testing, which saw it generate 18 MWh over a 24-hour period. This represents a serious step forward for tidal energy, which could soon become a viable renewable technology.’

Another renewable energy production record for Scotland

The European Commission sees ocean energy as a central element in its ‘Blue Growth’ strategy to reduce carbon emissions, to enhance power security and to create sustainable jobs. Let’s hope its support for such projects in Scotland’s stormy waters survives the stormier waters of Brexit.

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/143407/orkney-tidal-schemes-praised-european-commission-visit/

Back in February, I covered a report from the NAFC Marine Centre which is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, which noted for 2016:

‘In the case of cod, the increase has been four-fold from under 50 000 tons in 2006 to around 170 000 in 2016. In the same time period, Plaice biomass has increased from around 240 000 tonnes to approaching 1 million tonnes! Again in the same period, Hake has increased from around 40 000 tonnes to more than 300 000 tonnes and still climbing.’

Scottish Fishing Industry sees significant rises in most stocks and dramatic rises in some

On 30^th June, the Scottish Government was able to announce significantly higher quotas based on advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES):

‘The latest science includes advised increases for North sea cod (27%), whiting (34%), Norway Lobster (7%), saithe (7%) and haddock (30%), while there are advised reductions for other stocks such as hake (-4%).’

No sign of a recession here. The extent to which this remains good news depends of course on the extent to which Scotland’s economic exclusion zone for fishing is protected in the Brexit deal.

https://news.gov.scot/news/fisheries-stocks-on-the-rise

© amecfw.com

According to EnergyVoice yesterday, jobs are returning to the North Sea in some numbers. I’ve just put them in a listStatoil’s North Sea Mariner:   1500 jobs east of Shetland

• EnQuest Kraken discovery:     more than 1000 jobs
• Bilfinger Salamis UK: up to 300 jobs on Maersk Oil’s Culzean gas project
• Chrysaor: an extra 40 people across a range of business areas.
• Bilfinger: 210 jobs with new BP deal on Forties pipelin
• Cape: 400 jobs.
• BP’s Quad: 450 people,
• Centrica: 70 offshore roles
• Semco Maritime: 150 new jobs in Aberdeen

Is this any wonder after the run of positive news about the oil and gas sector in terms of new finds and price optimism? Remember these:

Estimates of Scotland’s oil reserves West of Shetland now massively increased to around 8 billion barrels! ‘A super-resource now on the cards.’

$90 per barrel for Scotland’s oil by 2020

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/143480/wave-new-jobs-hits-north-sea/

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Invergowrie near Dundee, the James Hutton Institute are building the facility with a view to running before the end of this year. The plant will be highly efficient with a relatively small footprint because of its vertical nature and using only the exact amount of energy and water required to produce the crop. Despite this the crop will be of the highest quality.

Here’s what the Hutton report had to say about the advantages of their new system:

‘Vertical farming allows us to provide the exact environmental conditions necessary for optimal plant growth. By adopting the principles of Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA), a system in which all aspects of the growing environment can be controlled, it is possible to eliminate variations in the growing environment, enabling the grower to produce consistent, high quality crops with minimal wastage, in any location, all year round.’

http://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/scotland%E2%80%99s-first-vertical-indoor-farm-be-operational-autumn-2017

© en.wikipedia.org/

I’ve already reported on the big increases in tourism linked to Scotland historic sites in:

Visitors to Scotland’s historic sites surge by 470 000 to reach more than 4.5 million, breaking all records, in only 11 months!

North Americans lead surge in Scottish tourism because they feel safer here

Now, of course, Outlander plays fast and loose with the accuracy of the locations with, for example, Falkland playing 1940s Inverness. Blackness and Doune castles also get star-billing with new titles.

However, never mind that. Visitor number are massively up. Doune Castle’s income is up 62%. Blackness Castle is up 72%! Aberdour Castle visitors have risen by 58%, Linlithgow Castle by 43% and Glasgow Cathedral up by 39%.

Andi it’s not just Americans coming to see Outlander sites, Indians are arriving in large numbers to see the locations of their massive audience Bollywood films. Remember Bollywood is bigger than Hollywood now. See:

http://mediacentre.visitscotland.org/pressreleases/hooray-for-bollywood-1107408

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15383736.Outlander_links_see_visitors_to_historic_sites_soaring/?ref=rss

 

© 2014 Sony PicturesTelevision

See this from the Herald in 2015:

‘The “importance” of the US television drama Outlander to the political atmosphere of last year’s Independence Referendum was highlighted by key TV executives before a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron. In a cache of leaked memos from the Sony organisation obtained by Wikileaks, an email written by Keith E. Weaver, executive vice president at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which produces Outlander, discusses a meeting with the Prime Minister last summer.  An Outlander insider last night said the meeting may have been why Sony “took the foot of the pedal” with finding a UK broadcaster.’

From the above, it seems clear that Outlander’s potential effect on the first referendum was a concern to the Cameron government.

The first series arrived free on More4 and All4 last week. I know the FM has gone quiet on Indyref2 but I doubt that the next SNP conference will allow much more delay. I know also that Outlander has only a tenuous link with historical events and that the educated folk reading this are similarly aware of that. I know too that many No voters will also be too educated to be swayed by it but some will be and we only need some.

So, you never know. Make sure you spread it around and get all you can watching the brutal excesses of those nasty as feck redcoats. 90% of our brain processing is subconscious so even if probable No voters think they aren’t going to be affected they might still be at that level.

You’ll have seen some of the previous reports showing periods when renewable sources could have powered all of Scotland and more such as:

Scotland’s energy 100% renewable by 2030?

All of Scotland could have been renewables-powered in May

If you search my blog for ‘renewables’, you’ll find umpteen other reports. Now the Scottish Government has just announced that:

‘Renewable electricity generation in Scotland has reached a new record high…new figures show that in the first quarter of this year, renewable generation was up by 13% compared to the same period last year….there was an increase in capacity, with more than half of all gross electricity consumption in Scotland continues to come from renewables.’

So, we’ve seen a fourfold increase in only the last ten years. The 100% target looks a certainty. All these new oil and gas discoveries will just have to be exported.

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/143316/renewable-electricity-generation-reaches-record-high-scotland/

Illustration by Jon Berkerly

You’ll have seen the headlines like this one:

Scotland’s economy “precarious” and on edge of recession, warns thinktank

I hope you won’t be disappointed when I refuse to tackle the idea head on with evidence. I won’t play their game. Unionist economists, journalists, politicians and you, if you can be bothered, can go and browse through my dozens of posts attesting to the rude good health of the Scottish economy. It’s simply unbelievable.

What I will do is simply tell you why you shouldn’t give any of them the time of day or a moment of your thoughts. Here’s why I know it’s tosh without bothering to engage with them.

1. Economics is not a real science. Economists can often come up with semi-plausible explanations as to why things went wrong in the past but they can never collectively predict the future. There are too many variables and human behaviour is unpredictable. There aren’t enough specifically Scottish data to use anyway.
2. Economists make assumptions based on what they were taught, what their colleagues believe or what their unconscious mind predisposes them to rationalise after it has decided for them.
3. Unionists consciously or unconsciously ask questions, select evidence and form conclusions that ensure they get the answers that suit their political stance. I’d do the same if I was a Nationalist economist.
4. They can’t help themselves. The unconscious mind is much more powerful than the conscious mind and crucially, has been shown to make decisions split seconds before the conscious mind thinks it has made them.
5. Thus, the recession if it appears will be a social construct and not a physical reality like the weather.
6. When the media pick up the story it will be propaganda.

 

And:

‘The inscrutability [of economics] is perhaps not unintentional.  It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers and tricksters.’ Jack Vance

A ‘soft opt-out scheme’ would mean that consent for organ donation was presumed. This would lead to an increase in life-saving organ transplants reducing the waiting lists. It’s expected that this might increase pressure on London and Northern Ireland to follow suit. It’s thought there is widespread support with a BMA survey showing 65% support though only 39% had got round to signing-up to the register.

That we already have the highest voluntary donor rate made me think. Our media and political elites are always keen to tell us we’re not so different from our neighbours in England and I do recognise we’re not radically different in that there are selfish individualists here and caring communitarians there but that doesn’t mean the countries are not still different enough in overall tendencies to be seen as worthy of autonomy from each other. I’m thinking of little things that all add up to make us less like England than we’re told. Look at this:

1. Free bus pass for the over 60s
2. Free care for the elderly
3. Superior NHS
4. Free HE tuition
5. More GPs per head of population
6. Compensation for the bedroom tax
7. Stronger fire and flood safety regulations
8. Less child poverty
9. Lower stillbirths and early deaths
10. Better police/Muslim community relations
11. No junior doctor strikes
12. Tories who support the winter heating allowance!

Don’t these add up to evidence of the dominance of a more caring communitarian set of values even in our Tories? If you need the evidence for the above, search my site. It’s all there.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/28/scotland-to-introduce-soft-opt-out-system-for-organ-donations