A community project which brought round the clock power to one of the country's most remote outposts walked away with top prize at the Scottish green energy Oscars last night.
Fair Isle’s new renewable energy system replaces polluting diesel generators and has allowed islanders to use electricity round the clock for the first time.
It was one of several projects celebrated at the annual Scottish Green Energy Awards in Edinburgh last night where it won the Judges Award for Fair Isle Low Carbon Energy System.
They joined Dundee’s new V&A museum and the Chief Executive of ScottishPower in receiving awards at the event, which was sponsored by EDF Renewables.
The awards, hosted by comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli, celebrated the achievements of Scotland’s renewable energy industry which employs 16,000 people and currently generates two-thirds of the country’s electricity demand.
Nova Innovation and Orbital Marine Power received the Outstanding Project and Best Innovation Awards.
Their success came after installing the world’s first grid-connected tidal power array and setting a new record for the amount of power generated by tides respectively.
An innovative heating and cooling system makes the new V&A Dundee the only all-electric, large-scale building in the UK to be fully heated and cooled by 100% low-carbon technologies.
It received the Carbon Reduction Award.
Keith Anderson, who was CEO of ScottishPower Renewables for 14 years, “made a contribution to renewables that goes far beyond any job” and “is not your standard CEO”, according to a passionate nomination by his peers.
He was given the Outstanding Contribution Award at the ceremony in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Claire Mack, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, told how the 2018 awards – the industry’s 16th – “showed the depth of talent which exists in the renewable energy industry”.
She said: “Scotland’s remarkable natural resources – our winds, tides, long summer evenings, forestry and more – have paved the way for the development of renewable energy as an economic success story. In just 20 years we’ve moved from an electricity system fuelled by fossil and nuclear to one dominated by renewables.
“Negotiators from 197 countries are currently meeting in Poland to take forward the climate change agreement signed in Paris in 2015. Tackling climate change means cutting the amount of carbon emitted by society, and energy sits at the centre of that.
“As other countries begin to emulate what we’ve already done in Scotland we’re seeing Scottish expertise travelling the globe, whether to connect remote communities to electricity networks – as Fair Isle has done with its determined and innovative renewable energy system – or to work on large-scale power projects in developed nations.
“The skills we’re developing now are ably demonstrated by the organisations and individuals who were shortlisted for this year’s Scottish Green Energy Awards. In many cases they represent the very cutting edge of what we’re doing as an industry and, therefore, exactly the kind of skills we need to nurture if we’re to continue to develop technology and projects which the rest of the world will want to follow.”
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