Long dependent on North Sea oil, Scotland is now spearheading Europe’s quest to harness strong winds to create energy and employment — leaving Japan way behind in this industry, Nikkei Business reported in October.
Rainy Scotland rarely has calm weather, but on this day it is clear for kilometres. We take off in a silver helicopter and, some 20 minutes later, a group of 60 bright white wind generators, called Robin Rigg, appears from the ocean about 14km offshore. This is one of Europe’s biggest wind farms.
The generators, towering 80 meters into the sky, have propeller blades 44 metres long and turbines that each generate 3mW of electricity. The cost to the UK government for this combined Danish-German project was £350 million (¥52 billion).
If local wind power is fully exploited, says Sally Shenton of Robin Rigg, it could produce 180mW — enough power for 170,000 households.
“You’ve never seen this in Japan”, Shenton says proudly with a smile, “because Japan has no offshore wind power generators and, even on land, the maximum is just 78mW”.
Conditions are good at this offshore site, with an agreeable depth for developers of 2-20 metres.
“Scotland is a huge and expanding market for such large wind-powered generators, so we will especially invest in this area in the future”, says Shelton.
One Scottish company has been contracted to lay foundations for 31 more turbines over the next 10 months, while another plans 100 each year. England, the mother of the Industrial Revolution, plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 34% percent from 1990 levels, compared to Europe’s average of 20%. By 2020, Scotland expects half of the power it uses to be “new energy”, and plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 42% of 1990 levels. Government sources claim that this could create one million new jobs.
“One of our top priorities is wind, and another is the human resources that have been cultivated through the petroleum industry”, said Lena Wilson, CEO of Scotland’s Agency for International Development.
Sceptics, meanwhile, say that problems in connecting to the power grid must first be overcome. Most people agree, however, that new energy has the potential to change British lifestyles and society forever.
