Orkney – Innovating for Scotland
The first national-grid connected commercial turbine (1951), the European Marine Energy Centre (2003) and hydrogen innovation (2010s), Orkney continues to be a pioneering energy island globally.
“Despite the Orkney Islands being rich in renewable energy resources, the islands as a whole import high levels of fossil fuels and has some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in Scotland. However, renewable energy production uptake has proved extremely successful throughout the community, to the point where energy generation now exceeds Orkney’s own needs, and is also greater than the capacity of Orkney’s existing grid connection to mainland Scotland. You can find out more about Orkney and how they’re transforming their energy situation in SEAFUEL’s case study on the islands.
Our Orkney case study provides a fine example of what can be done in rural and remote regions when dealing with the production of excess and curtailed energy with a wide range of potential solutions. While many of the projects include involvement of the local authorities, many have been driven by community involvement at the earliest stages showing what can be done when the community is active and willing to push the agenda and help shape policy“
Second Steering Committee Meeting
Appointment of Officers
Appoint secretary, chairperson, and treasurer. These should have a fixed term of 1 year, subject to re-appointment at the AGM. They will each have important roles and will have to report back to the committee regularly. They do not make decisions themselves; they implement the decisions of the committee.
Stakeholder Mapping
Allow an hour for this. It is an extremely useful action as it will help your committee build alliances in the community, as well as help with reaching out to experts, stakeholders, and decision makers.
Find out where your committee is weak, and then appoint a member to build a relationship with that missing stakeholder organisation. A strongly networked community group will be much more likely to succeed.
Resolve to invite some of these stakeholders to the next meeting and establish who is to contact them.
Start Your Technology Discussions
It’s very unlikely that you’re in a position to know exactly what type(s) of technology and scale of technology you need to satisfy your community’s unique challenges at this stage but starting to have a think at this stage can be really useful. Included below, are some country-specific resources we have collated to help you assess the benefits and disadvantages of renewable technologies and hydrogen pathways to help you start to discuss the opportunities based within your community. We highly recommend starting to identify potential pathways for deployment, as this will put you ahead of the competition when you start to talk with industry experts!
Included within this page are a series of technology decision trees, you can use these to become better informed of the potential benefits and disadvantages of each renewable technology option and start to discuss the opportunities for them within your community. This is highly recommended, as when it comes to future discussions with industry experts you’ll be in a much further ahead than the competition! You can also have a look at the funding decision flowchart, at the bottom of the below list, to start to understand the process of how to apply for funding.
