Business Insight

12
Business Insight
Energy investment
Where the future
can be renewable
‘Opportunity’ is the key word as Caithness and
North Sutherland face change after Dounreay’s
decommissioning, reveals Heidi Soholt
ITH not the least of them
being its northernmost
location and often-hostile
climate, it’s an area
well accustomed to challenges
– from Norse rule to Highland
Clearances – but Caithness and North
Sutherland is all set to face yet another.
Contrary to what some might believe,
that ‘faraway’ geography has never
meant an absence of advanced thinking.
And this time it’s a seriously 21st century
situation — caused by recent history.
This saw the region, though Dounreay,
become the hub of UK nuclear research
and development, and the challenge today
— with cessation of electricity generation
in the 1990s and run-down of decommissioning
work – is how to achieve
a successful transition from a nuclear-dependent
economy to a more diverse and
sustainable one.
“Of course there’s a challenge, but
there’s every reason to believe we can rise
to it,” says Sir Anthony Cleaver, chair of
the body overseeing this transformation
– the Caithness and North Sutherland
Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP) that
includes organisations such as Highland
and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the Highland
Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA).
With a vision to provide a healthy,
economically stable environment by
2020, it is currently working with the
energy and business service sectors to
support growth, jobs and diversification.
It aims to deliver a targeted programme
of inward investment as well as key infrastructure
to ports, harbours, road, rail
and air transport, and skills transition
through the major partners’ investments.
The region is blessed with enviable
natural resources in wave, wind and tidal
power, already near to the UK’s first commercial
wave and tidal energy sites in the
Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, and
offshore wind energy sites in the Moray
Firth. And the CNSRP believes the
highest jobs growth will come from the
renewable and oil and gas sector. Plans
have been drawn up to build Europe’s
largest tidal power project off the coast
of Caithness.
What’s more, the area is also home to
three of the five sites competing for the
Scottish government’s Saltire Prize for
marine energy.
It also boasts a new Engineering,
Technology & Energy Centre (ETEC) in
Thurso; and along with the neighbouring
Centre for Energy and the Environment,
this places the region is at the heart of research
and skills development in marine
energy.
Digital connectivity is another focus,
with Next Generation Broadband (NGB)
being rolled out across the area.
Tourism is also viewed as a growth sector,
with a £6 million project underway
Sites such as Scrabster
in Caithness are key
to the economic
rejuvenation of the area
Thursday January 9 2014 | the times
to develop John o’ Groats into a worldclass
visitor destination, and the newlycompleted
first phase of the project — by
Natural Retreats, Heritage GB and HIE
— is the first step in establishing the
landmark town as a leading destination.
A key advantage all round has to be
a workforce with decades of experience
in the nuclear industry. Skills gained at
Dounreay are transferable to other sectors,
such as renewables. Meanwhile, locally-based
supply chain companies have
diversified into new areas such as oil and
gas, having secured contracts from other
nuclear sites; and the area is now being
used as a base for international companies
such as Kongsberg Maritime and
Subsea 7 which have a track record of
servicing UK and international markets.
Businesses are well placed to take up
new challenges, according to Caithness
Chamber of Commerce, which delivers
key aspects of the area’s diversification
programme. “Our region has an exceptional
supply chain track record gained
from 50 years of servicing the Dounreay
nuclear facility which has proved to be
dynamic and innovative in the decommissioning
work,” says its CEO, Trudy
Morris. “These skills are transferable, as
is the high-quality safety driven, can-do
24/7 culture and attitude. You don’t get
an industry more regulated than nuclear
which means the business community
has proven track records in demanding
environments under rigorous health,
safety and environmental standards.”
CNSRP chair Sir Anthony concludes:
“We have enough time to look ahead
and decide what we need to do to bring
in resources from elsewhere and build
on what we already have here. The rundown
of nuclear activity is a big opportunity
— not a big disaster.”
COMMERCIAL REPORT: MEYGEN
Power to people has tide of support
A giant scheme for
underwater energy in the
Pentland Firth is Europe’s
largest tidal stream
project. Rick Wilson
examines the possibilities
here is surely a certain
irony to be found in the
super-ambitious underwater
energy scheme currently
getting underway in the
Pentland Firth – for while
it may be on the very outer edge of Europe,
it is also the continent’s largest-ever
tidal stream energy project.
The thumbs-up came from the Scottish
government four months ago after completion
of the statutory approval process
with the regulator Marine Scotland, and
the measure of the exercise’s scale was
summed up by its first phase generating
target of 86MW – or enough to power
42,000 homes, the equivalent of 40 per
cent of homes in the Highlands.
However, the site – in the Inner Sound
of the Pentland Firth off the north coast
of Caithness – could eventually boast 400
turbines and yield no less than 398MW to
make it the first commercial deployment
of tidal turbines in Scottish waters.
The Inner Sound was assessed as the
best site because of its maximum current
speeds of five metres per second, suitable
water depth and good access to the grid.
The company behind the giant project is
Scottish-registered MeyGen – 100 per cent
owned by Atlantis Resources Ltd – which
has agreed a 25-year lease with the Crown
Estate for an area encompassing about 1.4
square miles of fast-flowing water between
the island of Stroma and the mainland.
It sounds promising for residents, but
what of the area’s delicate wildlife? Ed
Rollings, MeyGen’s environment and
consents manager, comments: “We are
committed to ensuring that the exploitation
of this clean, predictable and sustainable
energy resource is done in a manner
that has no detrimental effect on the
species and habitats in the area.”
But perhaps the biggest environmental
plus-point of tidal power is its invisibility,
revealing as it does nothing that might
upset view-conscious residents or even a
certain Mr Trump; especially as power delivery
factors are comparable with wind.
“Yes, it was quite amusing when we
did a before-and-after photo visual of
Dan Pearson, MeyGen CEO,
says that local people are
‘thrilled’ with the project
the scheme,” recalls Dan Person, CEO
of MeyGen, “and there was no difference!
Clearly, this could be a very elegant
solution to many of our power supply
challenges.”
Happily too, there is little or no dissent
locally. “Most local people are thrilled
that it’s happening, bringing the prospect
of jobs, and we are equally thrilled about
how they offer a highly capable and intelligent
potential workforce, thoroughly
experienced in building nuclear equipment.
“When I took my first open days
the questions included some detailed
engineering points. It was quite refreshing,
to be talking to such an on-the-ball
community.”
This step forward for Scotland’s marine
renewable energy industry will begin with
a 9MW demonstration project of up to
six 73ft-tall turbines, whose performance
should prove to major investors like the
UK and Scottish governments that starting
the major construction programme
– expected to take place on a phased basis
until 2020 – will be a worthwhile exercise.
Mr Pearson adds: “The UK and
Scottish governments have been very
consistent in their support. They have
not wavered. Through the hardest recession
that we’ve seen they have stood by
this project. Weaker governments might
just have let it go, but their faith has been
quite outstanding.
“While there is still much work to be
done, the prospects for delivering the first
tidal energy array in the Pentland Firth,
thereby establishing a stepping stone to
commercialising tidal energy, are very
promising”.
It is hoped that construction, assembly
and pre-commissioning of the offshore
works (mainly turbines) will take place
in Scrabster Harbour which – subject to
commercial terms being agreed – will be
used as the marshalling yard.