THROUGHOUT Scotland’s history, its geography and climate have been seen more as a curse than a blessing. Located on an island with a larger and more powerful neighbour and distant from markets add to the expense of trade.
For Scottish businesses, it’s not so much the extra mile that needs to be gone but hundreds, if not thousands, of additional ones, all at a cost.
Weather wise, wind and rain can seem incessant and summer’s now but a distant dream. It is little wonder that, despite the collapse in the value of the pound, many are still jetting off to sunnier climes.
However, there’s one area where our nation’s geography and climate are not just to our advantage but are also a positive blessing, and that’s in renewable energy. Being located where we are offers opportunities and our weather affords natural advantages.
That should allow for a competitive advantage for our businesses and cost reduction for our consumers. Those advantages could go some way to offsetting the natural challenges faced.
Sadly, the opportunity isn’t being properly grasped by a UK government fixated on nuclear energy, irrespective of cost or security and imposing tariff barriers through grid connection charges that are not just unfavourable but perverse.
The distance-from-market challenge to Scottish business is compounded by a charging methodology in energy that penalises the natural bounty.
That was compounded by the failure last week to support the tidal energy scheme in the Pentland Firth. Of course, it floats on and, it is to be hoped, will still survive the buffeting but it’s not what it should be.
The passage is one of the great natural tidal areas in the world. Rather than a challenge for navigators, it could be a natural provider of energy, not just for Scotland but for the entire UK. Some estimates suggest that eight per cent of UK energy alone could be provided. The technology is complicated but it can be made to work as other forms of renewable energy, whether wind or solar, have shown in going from prototype to production.
Meanwhile in Canada they proceed with their attempts to harness a similar natural asset in the Bay of Fundy. There must be a huge risk that, as with wind technology before it, which started in Scotland and was lost to Denmark, we’ll be overlapped by somewhere else for a natural asset we should be able to make our own.
This Tory Government is prepared to throw £20 billion at a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point that has been caustically assessed by the National Audit Office, never mind the safety implications from Fukushima and elsewhere.
It’s also privately fretted over by the security services, given China’s involvement in its construction. This aspect seems particularly absurd given alleged recent cyber-attacks, never mind the ongoing industrial, if not military, espionage. In ancient civilizations, it was sometimes claimed that decline began when the empire was unable properly to defend itself.
When it became dependent on mercenaries from outwith then collapse was not long in coming; so it was said about Byzantium.
In modern terms, it is energy more than the military that matters. If you don’t have secure energy supplies then there’s a huge risk.
It is unsurprising, therefore, that recent conflicts have often been in oil-rich areas such as Iraq. That the Tories reject the bounty on the northern shore and risk the nation’s security with a Trojan-horse power station is utter folly.
Of course, much progress has been made, especially in wind energy where on several days this year more than enough power has been produced than the country’s entire needs.
It’s not just large-scale wind farms but smaller turbines for individuals and communities that are adding to the mix. Even solar has a role. Moreover, offshore sites offer even greater prospects in scale and greater support must be provided. It’s not just jobs that are provided but also the opportunity for cheap energy for business and citizen alike, reversing centuries of disadvantage.
There are areas of Scotland where their siting would be inappropriate but the Pavlovian-response hatred that some have is irrational and reminiscent of a latter-day Sancho Panza.
Many, including Donald Trump, seem to want to preserve a view of Scotland that they have, rather than seek to deliver a vision of what it can be. Many of our glens weren’t meant to be devoid of either human life or engineering. Renewables can allow areas to thrive while preserving natural beauty.
As the world moves from fossil fuels to renewables, Scotland’s location and climate are at last to our advantage.
Renewable energy is a golden opportunity for Scotland. With 25 per cent of Europe’s potential tidal resource, it should be harnessed, not hindered.
The Tories are shamefully dissipating our natural asset for their nuclear folly.
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