Fair Isle can keep the lights on at last

Two centuries after Michael Faraday invented the electric motor and almost 100 years since Stanley Baldwin established the national grid, Britain’s most remote community will finally plug in to a 24-hour electricity supply this autumn.

On Fair Isle, 25 miles south of Shetland, all 55 inhabitants will discover the simple pleasures of instant hot water at any time, thanks to clever use of renewable technology.

For a low-lying windswept island, adrift between the North Sea and the Atlantic, such comforts are not to be sniffed at. The prospect of keeping the heating on overnight arrives courtesy of a £2.65 million electricity supply scheme comprising three wind turbines, a solar array and battery storage, combined in a new high-voltage network across the island.

The technology could even herald a new era of growth for a community that has lived on the brink for centuries, according to Robert Mitchell, director of the Fair Isle Electricity Company.

“A decent infrastructure does improve the quality of living on the island, but also there’s the potential for new businesses to start,” he said. “I’m sure there will be a few teething problems as we go along, but the fact that everything is happening — after all these years of trying to get 24-hour power and trying to upgrade the system — there is a lot of anticipation on the island that at least we’re going to get it.”

Fair Isle has been occupied since Neolithic times but suffered a rapid decline in the 20th century. Its inhabitants faced the prospect of evacuation in the 1950s before the establishment of its bird observatory and its purchase by the National Trust for Scotland.

The advent of green technology has transformed prospects again. The community has applied for grants to refurbish abandoned properties, and Mr Mitchell believes that a secure power supply could bring the first new-built homes for generations.

“With a decent infrastructure we can look for sites on the island now to build houses and connect them to a system, whereas before there was no point in building new houses because we didn’t have any capacity to take them on,” he said. “All that for the future will make a difference and hopefully encourage people to come and live on the island.”

Fair Isle has been a renewable energy innovator in the past. In 1982 it was the site of what it is thought to have been the first commercial use of wind energy in Europe, based on a single turbine.

Since then, power generation on the three mile long island has evolved to combine diesel generators and two turbines, but technical issues disrupted supplies and on still nights the lights go out.

The remedy is being etched into the landscape now. Mr Mitchell said trench work had nearly been completed by Chap, a civil engineering company in Aberdeen, and electricians were adapting properties before the new high-voltage system comes online. Some of the materials have been shipped north from Orkney.

“We should, at the beginning of May, have [engineers] coming up to build us the bases for the new three turbines,” Mr Mitchell said. “Everything is on schedule and everything is looking good to be finished by the end of September.”

The National Trust for Scotland said it had provided £245,000 in direct funding for the scheme and “support in kind through the provision of a beneficial new lease”.

A spokesman added: “We hope that this is a stepping stone towards ensuring the community’s long-term sustainability and quality of life.”

The project has also had funding from the Scottish government’s low carbon infrastructure transition programme, Shetland Islands council, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.