By Alan Simpson
IT USED to be an evening job, locals taking it in turns to iron and vacuum depending on the limited light and electricity.
Everything was done by candlelight or torch with the long drawn-out winter evenings a particular challenge as the intermittent electricity supply meant little could get done.
But now the remote Fair Isle, located halfway between Orkney and Shetland and famous for its geometric and colourful knitwear, will finally be able to receive a guaranteed electricity 24 hours a day after securing funding for a new supply.
Islanders currently face lights-out between 11pm and 7am when there is insufficient wind to generate power but £2.6 million has now been secured to ensure round-the-clock electricity.
The island has used a combination of wind and diesel power generation since the 1980s but only one of the existing two wind turbines is working and it has been operating intermittently for the past 18 months.
Electricity generated cannot be stored and there is no space for new customers, so community group the Fair Isle Electricity Company is leading plans to install three 60kW wind turbines, a 50kW solar array and battery storage.
The scheme will extend a high-voltage network to the north of the three-mile long island to enable grid connections to water treatment works, the airstrip, harbour and one of the main attractions on an island famed for its birdlife – the Fair Isle Bird Observatory.
It is also hoped it will help boost the population and make life easier for islanders. Fair Isle is home to 50,000 puffins but levels of people have dropped to critically low levels, with only 55 living there now – the lowest in several years.
Young mother Eileen Thomson, 33, has welcomed the news as she is currently pregnant and will now be guaranteed electricity when her new child is born in January.
She said: “It is very good news for the Isle, hopefully it will be a good addition to our improving quality of life here, although we do have an excellent quality of life already. “Though some homes have private inverters and generators, they are expensive and unreliable. Also their power is limited so for example, you can’t use the washing machine or any other heavier goods otherwise it can switch off.
“It’ll be wonderful for everyone to be able to use central heating at night, especially during winter.
“From my point of view it’ll help to have guaranteed electricity through the night with the new baby. Fair Isle is a fantastic place, hopefully having 24-hour power may remove a barrier to others wanting to move here.”
Fair Isle, owned by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), was once home to 400 people.
Most islanders have a croft, supplemented by a diversity of business activity but internet speeds are slow. Since the 1980s, it has been powered by two on-island turbines and two diesel generators. However, the 60kW and 100W turbines have both been out of action for the last year due to technical problems and a lightning strike.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise said the £2.6m funding package is now complete after it awarded the final £250,000, with other contributors including the European Regional Development Fund, Shetlands Islands Council and the NTS.
Fair Isle last year starred in a two-part BBC documentary and its unique electricity network was a pivotal point of the show, with locals of all ilk seen clubbing together to lower one of the existing turbines to repair it.
The community-led Fair Isle Electricity Company will use £20,000 of its own funding to put towards the scheme.
Director Ian Best said the new scheme would improve the quality of life of residents and said the idea to revamp the power scheme has been one of the main issues raised by the island’s residents over the last number of years.
He added: “I think it would be a very key part of the jigsaw of getting folk to move. We’re working quite hard on the island to develop our infrastructure, and power is a big part of that.”
“But it also secures the people you’ve got. If you’re got older folk, it’ll be nice for them to have the power whenever they need it. It’s about quality of life as well.”
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