COMPANIES tend to be cautious, especially when releasing the latest annual report and accounts. Guernsey Electricity is no different, although by being owned by the States of Guernsey, it is spared at least some of the pressures that fall on other businesses with more aggressively minded shareholders.
So it was encouraging yesterday to see an otherwise hard-nosed company so positive about the future part to be played by renewable energy sources in helping to provide the Bailiwick’s power requirements.
The report’s title alone gave a clear indication about how Guernsey Electricity regards the future: The Rise of Sea Power - Heralding the Dawn of a New Renewable Energy Source.
Most islanders, familiar with tidal currents here that flow more like rivers, have for years hoped that this could be converted into an abundance of ‘free’ energy. Equally, however, they have seen over those years how the first wave power schemes failed to deliver and it is only now that the first commercial-scale marine turbines are actually in place and generating.
For that reason, it is a significant confidence booster that Guernsey Electricity is so bullish about the role of the sea and has so firmly nailed its colours to the mast over this.
The pilot scheme that GE is part-funding will produce sufficient electricity to power 1,000 homes, is connected to the Northern Ireland grid and should have been operating now.
However, because it sustained rotor damage during the commissioning process, a full testing is delayed until the autumn.
Marine Current Turbines is satisfied, however, that the damage was a one-off and not as a result of some intrinsic design flaw.
As a result, a much bigger project will go ahead as planned off Anglesey in 2011/2, in part supported by a #5.2m. grant from the UK taxpayer. That location has been chosen because it is one of the main ‘hot spots’ in British waters, with the remaining other few including the Pentland Firth and the Channel Islands.
What Guernsey Electricity confirms is that the tidal dream is poised to become reality.
Tidal power is now close to a reality
COMPANIES tend to be cautious, especially when releasing the latest annual report and accounts. Guernsey Electricity is no different, although by being owned by the States of Guernsey, it is spared at least some of the pressures that fall on other businesses with more aggressively minded shareholders.
So it was encouraging yesterday to see an otherwise hard-nosed company so positive about the future part to be played by renewable energy sources in helping to provide the Bailiwick’s power requirements.
The report’s title alone gave a clear indication about how Guernsey Electricity regards the future: The Rise of Sea Power - Heralding the Dawn of a New Renewable Energy Source.
Most islanders, familiar with tidal currents here that flow more like rivers, have for years hoped that this could be converted into an abundance of ‘free’ energy. Equally, however, they have seen over those years how the first wave power schemes failed to deliver and it is only now that the first commercial-scale marine turbines are actually in place and generating.
For that reason, it is a significant confidence booster that Guernsey Electricity is so bullish about the role of the sea and has so firmly nailed its colours to the mast over this.
The pilot scheme that GE is part-funding will produce sufficient electricity to power 1,000 homes, is connected to the Northern Ireland grid and should have been operating now.
However, because it sustained rotor damage during the commissioning process, a full testing is delayed until the autumn.
Marine Current Turbines is satisfied, however, that the damage was a one-off and not as a result of some intrinsic design flaw.
As a result, a much bigger project will go ahead as planned off Anglesey in 2011/2, in part supported by a #5.2m. grant from the UK taxpayer. That location has been chosen because it is one of the main ‘hot spots’ in British waters, with the remaining other few including the Pentland Firth and the Channel Islands.
What Guernsey Electricity confirms is that the tidal dream is poised to become reality.
Article posted on 31st July, 2008 - 2.30pm