All of This Island's Energy Will Be Renewable

Whatever your views on divisive Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, there’s one thing his government has been able to do right. In 2012, Scotland was able to produce 40.3 percent of the energy it used from renewable sources. Here’s a breakdown of what sources this energy came from, with wind the biggest contributor:

For comparison, in the US, 13.2 percent of domestically produced energy was from renewables—about two thirds less. Scotland as a whole shouldn’t sit so smug though, because in comparison to Eigg (pronounced "egg"), a small Scottish island on the west coast, it looks about as efficient as a Hummer.

Eigg sits isolated in the Atlantic Ocean 15 miles from the mainland with the Isle of Rum to its north and the Isle of Muck to its south. It’s just nine kilometres long and bears the scars of most Hebrides islands after thousands of years of the Atlantic’s meteorological conditions. But this is also Eigg’s strength, for the island is capitalizing on these same conditions to become the first 100 percent energy sustainable community on Earth.

The Island of Eigg and it’s fewer than 100 residents are a completely self-governing population, following a community buyout in 1997 for £1.75 million ($2.9 million), £1 million of which came from an anonymous donor. They became responsible for everything that happens on their island, with help from the Highland Council and Scottish Wildlife Trust.

The push for more renewable energy started in 2008. Back then, most of the residents on the island relied on inefficient and loud diesel generators, which could only provide electricity a few hours a day for essential tasks. The diesel was transported to the island via ferry and this increased the already rocketing price in fossil fuels. That spurred the community to make use of Eigg’s natural sources of clean renewable energy—and so started plans for Eigg’s green future.

Eigg currently produces between 90-95 percent of its electricity from wind, water, and solar. The system in place consists of three hydro generators that run off rivers on the island. The largest is situated on the north-west of the island and provides 100 kilowatts to the community, while two smaller generators provide around five kW each. Together, they make up 60 percent of the island’s power. Then there are solar panels that provide another 50 kW and four small wind turbines that make a maximum of 24 kW. It all adds up to a potential 184 kW of energy.

The entire project and its implementation cost £1,664,828 and was funded by several different regional and energy organisations, as well as a small contribution from the island’s residents. It was completed in 2012.

Although Eigg provides the vast majority of its own power, residents do have a cap on how much electricity they can use. At the moment the cap is five kW per household at any one time, which community-owned company Eigg Electric says is enough to power a kettle and a washing machine simultaneously. For businesses, the cap is 10 kW.  There are OWL monitors in each household to make sure households stick to these targets.

When the elements are against them (which, ironically, is when they have good weather) and limiting consumption isn’t enough, Eigg has two backup diesel generators that automatically kick in when their battery reserves reach 50 percent to help top up the supply. There’s also a need for diesel to power industry and vehicles—these are the final hurdles to Eigg’s 100 percent renewable plan.

Talking to Lucy Conway, a resident of 10 years on the island, I asked her what it's like having renewable energy. “It’s great, absolutely fantastic!” she said. “I now have clean electricity 24 hours a day instead of relying on diesel-powered generators, which could only be on a few hours a day. It’s something we are very proud of on Eigg.”

Lucy also told me the residents of the island have been looking at ways of boosting Eigg’s efficiency even further. These include long-term storage for electricity generated in surplus by the system, using technologies derived from Formula One in conjunction with Williams Advanced Engineering. At present they have no way to store excess power, so it goes into heating public spaces even when they’re not in use. They’re also looking into harnessing tidal power.

At the moment Eigg has no current date for reaching the 100 percent renewable mark. The final five to ten percent of electricity being derived from diesel is proving the most difficult to be eliminated. The unpredictability of weather will always leave a need for back-up diesel generators as well as the fuel needed to power vehicles and machinery. In that respect, Eigg residents aren’t totally divorced from the rest of us who have developed an unhealthy dependence on a finite substance. But they’ll cope a lot better than the rest of us when we’re squeezing the last drops out of the Earth.