Shetland windfarm - Viking Energy

[sheepshagger]

what really worries me is viking energy propose to spend every last penny of the oil reserves for a return of 25mil a year not much of a return and no gaurantee on it either. but i suppose the directors will get a bloody good wage out of it, so i can see why their all for it.

I know that the investments made have not been all that good (stand up and take a bow goodlad brothers etc) but the council seems a hell of a keen to get rid of the rest of it.

another big concern is this cable could carry electric generated by nuclear power and you cant get much further from london than here, and if that is decided by the powers that be there is damn all we could do to stop it.

remember the government has decided this is the way to go to reduce carbon emisions. bit bloody rich considering their very loud opposition to it when they sat on the other side of the house

[DavidThomson]

what really worries me is viking energy propose to spend every last penny of the oil reserves for a return of 25mil a year not much of a return and no gaurantee on it either. but i suppose the directors will get a bloody good wage out of it, so i can see why their all for it.

 

There is no suggestion of 'every last penny of the oil reserves' being spent on this project. The vast bulk of the funding for this project will be found by commercial borrowing. A small percentage (<20%) of our half of the overall cost will have to be stumped up locally. It will still be a big figure but it will be tens of millions not hundreds and so will not use up the oil reserves. I could be wrong but I understand the oil reserves are currently worth over £200 million. The project will not happen unless everyone involved is comfortable that the risks have been minimised. This project wil involve banks and Scottish and Southern Energy and will be scrutinised by several independent parties (including the electricity industry regulator). We can be reassured that their shareholders will not permit investments into unviable projects and the regulator will not sanction investment for a cable if the trigger project is iffy.

The concept behind the project is to create a new revenue stream to supplement and replace the reducing income from the oil industry so that future generations of Shetlanders can have the choices and opportunities we currently enjoy. Shetland as a community has a list of ambitions which, if we were to simply commit to building/paying for, would certainly use up the oil reserves in a generation. This has been reported in Council meetings and in the Shetland Times. The windfarm is an opportunity to use Shetland's world-class resources to contribute to national targets and give this community financial security beyond the oil era.

[Fifi]

As I suspected - purely financial motives and nothing to do with being green.

[DavidThomson]

I know that the investments made have not been all that good...

 

I am uncertain of the precise figures but have heard the following figures announced by the Financial Controller of the Shetland Charitable Trust during the public meetings to discuss the windfarm.

Shetland has received around Eighty million pounds from the oil industry since the 1970s. Shetland has spent over Two Hundred million pounds locally and still has over Two Hundred million pounds in value left.

In any investment portfolio there are winners and losers but the above sounds like overall the investments have been successful.

The Charitable Trust can invest in anything if there is a reasonable prospect of a return on that investment which can then be used for local benefit. One or two high profile losses does not make the whole thing a failure.

At the same meetings I also heard (as all those who attended will have heard) that there have been well recorded losses but that the overall reserves suffered far bigger losses due to stock market drops. These losses have been overcome by ongoing investment and we are clearly still ahead.

[DavidThomson]

As I suspected - purely financial motives and nothing to do with being green.

 

The windfarm is an opportunity to use Shetland's world-class resources to contribute to national targets and give this community financial security beyond the oil era.

 

 

I've added the bold format in the above quote.

Those national targets are based on environmental concerns and are about being 'green'.

[hairyian]

As I suspected - purely financial motives and nothing to do with being green.

 

What is wrong with that?

 

In a couple of years time electricity will be like gold dust. Buyers won't give two hoots where it comes from, they will just want to to turn the lights on for their customers. If it happens to be 'green' as well, that will be a bonus for them.

 

VE on a winters afternoon will be saying I have 600 MW available, what am I bid? However, I suspect the SSE will have already bagged it for themselves.

[Fifi]

The windfarm is an opportunity to use Shetland's world-class resources to contribute to national targets and give this community financial security beyond the oil era.

I've added the bold format in the above quote.

Those national targets are based on environmental concerns and are about being 'green'.

Apologies David. Yes, you did mention the windfarm contributing to national targets.

[Fifi]

As I suspected - purely financial motives and nothing to do with being green.

What is wrong with that?

Absolutely nothing. As long as it's not dressed up as being a venture undertaken to 'save the world'.

[sheepshagger]

Maybe the word risk rather than spend should have been used in my last post, because if it all goes tits up like a lot of other investments do you think the banks are going to say that ok you don't have to pay us back.

so I still think we are putting all our eggs in one basket, and as your granny would tell you this is not the best idea.

And the investments that have paid out so well were in the stockmarket even an imbecile can make mony on a rising market. maybe if the financial consultants were paid on results and not a percentage of money invested good or bad they would maybe try harder to protect our money.

But my dig was at the shockingly poor decisions made locally costing the community millions while those that lost the money still drive flash cars and flash boats.

Maybe I would be happier if the directors of the companies were held personally responsable for the funds invested.

so no more investing in Ltd companies

[Ghostrider]

^^^ The investment risk for/against argument comes back to what's been said in general terms before, that the people who are chosen to run Shetland in general ie. Councillors, are not necessarily the same people that would be chosen by exactly the same electorate to manage an investment fund prudently and successfully.

 

With hindsight it's very easy to see that at the time the Charry Trust and it's minion sundry trusts was established, the Shetland public should have demanded it was formed as a wholly seperate entity over which the Council had no influence once it was properly constituted and established. The trustees should have been elected by the Shetland voting public for the Trust role alone in a seperate election, then we might have seen a better crop of talent at the helm and been collectively much better of, both finiancially and circumstancially than we are on the results of a select band of Councillors whom got the position via a ticket to another job, and a selection of toadies, minions and "yes men" of the day to bolster them up.

 

We've lost a lot due to, what on the face of it can only be described, in the most charitable terms, as careless ineptitude, but there's still a good purse worth trying to preserve, it just takes enough public will to move the purse out of the hands of the dubious and in to those democratically believed to be more competent.

[Guest Anonymous]

Is there still only the one plan for a mega windfarm + connector cable ?

Is there no plans + estimated costs for a self sufficiency type of wind generation system here in shetland ?

I would like to know what the diference in costs and enviromental impact would be .

[humptygrumpty]

Is there no plans + estimated costs for a self sufficiency type of wind generation system here in shetland ?

I would like to know what the diference in costs and enviromental impact would be .

 

I'd like to know that aswell.

[Njugle]

I'm under the impression that this very issue was raised at the public meetings Viking Energy held, along the lines of what would happen financially if a similar amount was invested in a local energy company, and local energy production and efficiency infrastructure. ie selling energy to Shetland, promoting micro-generation and improving home and industrial energy efficiency.

As i have it, the answer was correctly given that it would be an interesting study, but one not within the scope of the plans for the VE scheme as it stands, ie subject for an entirely different consultation.

 

One for the, erm, council?

[MuckleJoannie]

Is there still only the one plan for a mega windfarm + connector cable ?

Is there no plans + estimated costs for a self sufficiency type of wind generation system here in shetland ?

 

I understand that the Burradale site generates all the energy that the Shetland grid can handle. Someone needs to come up with a means of storing energy generated on windy days for use on the calm ones. There was scheme on Foula at one time where the excess energy was used to pump water up to a resorvoir for a Hydro scheme to use. Such a scheme would need to be massive to cover all Shetland.

[ArabiaTerra]

Someone needs to come up with a means of storing energy generated on windy days for use on the calm ones.

 

Surely the PURE project in Unst is exactly that?