Written evidence submitted by Gills Harbour
Ltd
1. I write as a director of Gills Harbour
Ltd, a community-owned small port in a rural area at the head
of Gills Bay, an inlet on Scotland's North Coast on the mainland
shores of the Pentland Firth, c 4 miles west of John O'Groats.
2. It fully supports the imaginative sea-bed
leasing programme in nearby waters that the Crown Estate is currently
conducting, in the hope and expectation that this will provide
employment opportunities in what is a "remote" area
in the UK, in line with our body's long-held objectives.
3. Harnessing the kinetic energy in the
fast-flowing tidal streams of the E. Pentland Firth by consortia
awarded sea-bed leases by the Crown Estate should provide UK with
its single largest reliable resource for generating renewable
electricity; perhaps as much as the output of six or more modern
nuclear power-stations if cost-effective generation can be demonstrated,
of which a proportion should be 24/7 "base load" electricity.
4. All of the soon-to-be announced leases
are in the narrowest East Pentland Firth, where the tidal stream
flows most swiftly. All are easily and safely accessible from
Gills here. The expectation is that the Pentland Firth will become
not only productive, but will prove a realistic "test-bed"
for UK based companies to display capabilities "honed"
here to many countries seeking to harness near-coast sea-currents.
5. As a Crown Estate spokesperson stated
on 28.10.09: "We established the industrial-scale wave and
tidal energy programme, the first of its type in the world, to
accelerate the commercialisation of this embryonic industry that
was struggling to obtain opportunities at the appropriate scale".
6. A "prize" of national and international
importance is thus held before us, with more seabed lease bidders
than initially anticipated having hurdled the first barrier to
obtain "preferred" status.
7. Success should lead, over the coming
years & decades, to a very large investment running into billions
of pounds, perhaps starting in earnest from c 2015 onwards.
8. This will happen if harnessing the Firth's
tidal streams proves capable of generating renewable electricity
competitively as well as reliably and so makes an anticipated
large contribution to meeting the UK's and Scotland's CO2 reduction
targets.
9. The Crown Estate sea-bed leasing "regime",
as confirmed by the UK Parliament in the 2004 Energy Act, is proving
crucial as a launch-pad stimulus to this process.
10. It is concentrating minds and efforts
at securing this desirable "goal", especially by bringing
together (generally under-capitalised) inventors/developers of
tidal stream generating devices and innovative turbine engineering
companies including Rolls Royce, with major international energy
corporations as joint lease applicants. It has also stimulated
the activities of contractors with specific areas of expertise.
11. The analogy is that, at present, the
development of tidal stream turbines is roughly at the stage aviation
was in the era of Louis Bleriot; there is still no agreement as
to whether (a) adapted two-way aero-generators, (b) ducted systems
to perhaps double the velocity of the streams and control its
"aim", (c) "polo-mint" style devices with
induction coils in a casing holding a spinning circular device
or (d) others should be preferred.
12. The fact that by 2015-16 several systems
are expected to be installed will show the most efficient ones,
on which any scarce public funding can be concentrated. With a
number of devices being installed, a failure of one may not doom
the whole concept.
13. We were pleased by the announcement
in November, 2009, by the National Grid and its associate SHETL
(Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Lines) of its choice of
Gills Bay as the land-fall "hub" for sub-sea power-lines
from tidal-stream generating devices deployed on the seabed.
14. National Grid's Martin Moran concurrently
stated its intention of building a new overhead 132 kV overhead
wooden-poles grid-line from Gills Bay to Dounreay, 25 miles along
the North coast, in line with demand for E Pentland Firth seabed
connections from 2015 onwards, with a 340MW capacity.
15. Dounreay is the present terminus of
the National Grid, built in the late 1960s/early 1970s to provide
connection with the publicly-funded, plutonium-fuelled Prototype
Fast Reactor (PFR) there.
16. This concept, that relied on "transmuting"
(by controlled irradiation) large British-held supplies of depleted
uranium into the former (ie Pu) was seen from the early 1950s
to the late 1980s as a main way for the UK in the 21st C to generate
non-polluting (and largely CO2-free) electricity. It promised
UK self-sufficiency, without relying on fuel imports, such as
coal and gas, for burning to "boil" water supplying
turbine-spinning steam at British power stations.
17. For various national and international
reasons the "fast reactor" system was not adopted. Now
the PFR, its "dome-housed" DFR predecessor and the associated
then "state of the art" engineering and chemical complex
is being decommissioned/cleaned-up/demolished, with shut-down
expected for 2025.
18. For over 50 years Dounreay has provided
good-standard employment for c 2,000 persons allowing young persons
in "remote" Caithness (popn 26,000) the opportunity
of secure employment with quality engineering training that has
proved transferable/adaptable to other energy sectors, especially
oil & gas in the North Sea and worldwide. Essentially, no
other part of Scotland is within day "travel to work"
range of Caithness.
19. It has left a legacy of a small, but
significant, group of high-tech energy engineering companies in
Caithness, who should be able to participate in the development
of "commercial-size" marine electricity generating devices.
20. Our responsibility, as unpaid community
company directors, is to manage/develop Gills Harbour in a sustainable
manner "for the encouragement of employment through trade,
commerce, industry, transport, energy and marine activities (including
leisure) at, or in the vicinity of, the harbour".
21. This reflects the aim of diversifying
the local rural economy (then away from small-scale "crofting"
agriculture) that was fundamental to the building of the "original"
150-yard-long Gills pier in 1905, broadly as the first phase of
a "steamer terminus for the Orkney trade".
22. We understand that the policy for "renewable"
electricity is that it should provide quality employment and investment
in rural communities, not just in towns and cities. We also want
to see school-leavers with no or few qualifications to obtain
jobs/training. It would be untruthful to classify this as a "poverty-stricken"
area, yet there is a steady yearly flow of younger people away
to towns and cities, that has seen services decline: (eg local
Post Offices closed).
23. Tidal stream and wave-power electricity
are frequently confused in the public mind, mainly because no
marine generating devices have, as yet, evolved beyond the prototype
stages. (ie there are no proven devices in either category available
"off the shelf".)
24. The Crown Estate's innovative leasing
procedure in waters off the North of Scotland ("the Pentland
Firth and Orkney Islands area") involves both marine energy
types.
25. It has stated publicly that successful
licence awards in March/April 2010 will be split 50/50 between
the two categories that promise to harness two fundamentally different
sources of energy in sea-water, with both needing to be scaled
up/proven for commercial viability, hopefully during the coming
decade.
26. The Crown Estate's lease area of interest
to wave-power consortia lies close to the North shores of Caithness
and Sutherland west of Thurso/Scrabster and off Orkney's West
Coast, while successful tidal stream groups will gain seabed leases
in the E. Pentland Firth, as above.
27. The 17 miles long channel stretches
east from Dunnet Head, is six to eight miles wide, with an average
depth of 60-70 metres; it is a major international "choke-point"
trade artery. All generating devices will have to provide 20m
clearance from the sea-surface to ensure the free passage of merchant
shipping in the main channel; this is guaranteed by the UK Government's
signature of an UN protocol, although the Pentland Firth lies
wholly in the UK territorial sea.
28. Its characteristic is the strength of
its currents (tidal steams, governed by lunar gravity, not weather)
that reverse twice-daily, broadly in line with ebbs and flowing
tides. Those regularly exceed 10-12 knots with scientists claiming
that as much as 3 million tonnes of seawater per second at peak
moves from the Atlantic Ocean into the North Sea and vice-versa.
29. The "nub" of this correspondence
relates solely to tidal stream electricity (essentially horizontal
salt-water hydro-electric power) for which we believe that Gills
Harbour has a clear advantage over all other Scottish mainland
bases ; we have not been approached by any potential wave-power
developer, nor do we expect to be. Harbours at Scrabster, a suburb
of Thurso, Caithness, and Stromness, Orkney are better-sited as
wave-power bases.
30. Gills Harbour consists of two parts;
(a) an enclosed Inner Basin that is in the process of being deepened
and otherwise enhanced by our body to better cater for the needs
of Pentland Firth tidal stream developers being granted Crown
Estate rights in waters immediately offshore from here, with this
phase completed by Spring this year and (b) the ferry terminal
(incl. vehicle marshalling area/ferry link-span/terminal/ferry
berth/breakwater + terminal buildings) for Pentland Ferries Ltd,
with whom it has a PPP-style agreement; in this case, "public"
means not citizens UK-wide, but electors listed in the "Gills
Defined Area" in Canisbay parish, Caithness.
31. The little port (the site of the original
150 yard-long pier was donated to our predecessor body over a
century ago) lies at the head of Gills Bay, well inside the Firth's
Inner Sound tide-streams; it is also clear of swells originating
in the North Sea, while the breakwater/berth (see below) provides
protection from the prevailing Atlantic-origin westerly swells.
32. It is substantially protected from "fetch"
waves by the isle of Stroma and "chain" of Orkney islands
stretching 14 miles along from Old Head in South Ronaldsay to
Tor Ness on Hoy's West coast; those isles lies 8-10 miles away.
Its wave-fetch "vector" is only c 25 degrees out of
360; much superior to other Caithness mainland ports.
33. The upgrading referred to above has
been/is being funded entirely from our own (modest) funds, after
listening to the wishes of prospective tidal stream developers.
It is, we believe, the first tangible piece of infrastructure
enhancement in the area of maximum interest for the safe development
of this nascent tidal stream industry.
34. Hopefully this will be the first of
several phases of improvements at Gills Harbour; we are being
pressed by some developers to have a longer-term programme (of
say 15 years) of facility enhancements drafted.
35. We disagree with the criticism about
Crown Estate "delays" in the tidal stream leasing process
made public last October by John Thurso, MP. We support the Crown
Estate's role in what is a UK seabed leasing "first"
and fully acknowledge its difficulties in both judging the technological
and financial suitability of applicants or consortia and producing
legally-binding contracts that meet with European Law (eg there
has to be environmental impact assessments conducted for tidal-stream
generating device emplacement).
36. We do not believe that a Spring 2010
award announcement will in any way adversely affect the Crown
Estate's ambitious target of generating c 700 MW of electricity
from its licensing area (both wave and tidal steam) in the far
North of Scotland by 2020. Both it and HM Treasury have a vested
interest in success.
37. I can confidently state that no Gills
Harbour office-bearer/director was consulted by the MP prior to
his public criticism of the Crown Estate; we made our disagreement
with his outburst quickly known to its officials, with whom we
had a subsequent meeting, where our delegates were treated with
the "courtesy" and "professionalism" that
we expect from this body and it was pointed out to us that likely
demand for harbour berths could exceed availability/supply.
38. We have no views on either the Crown
Estate's management of its urban estate, nor its rural lands nor
Windsor Castle and Royal Parks, all of which feature in your Inquiry,
(as per your 09.12.09 intimation) apart from stating the obvious
that it must be doing things broadly correctly to have been able
to deliver profits regularly to HM Treasury for centuries.
39. The future role of the rapid tidal streams
could be significantly enhanced if the hypothesis proposed by
our long-term treasurer Billy Magee is proven, as (broadly) looks
likely. (see below).
40. We believe that, for certain classes
of vessels involved/likely to be engaged in this Crown Estate-inspired
tidal-stream electricity project of national importance, Gills
Harbour offers clear advantages to users over all other (Scottish)
mainland ports; we know that this view is shared by many of the
tidal stream developers. In general, they are resistant to chartering
oil-rig supply tenders, typically 70m-80m in length, because of
high day-rates costs, with crude oil priced internationally at
c $80 per barrel.
41. From Gills Harbour small, but powerful
vessels of, say, 15m-25m length involved in conducting sea measurements
(current strengths, precise stream directions and related time-variables),
detailed sea-bed scanning surveys/analysis and sea-bed soil samplings
plus assessments of wave-heights/depths and their interaction
with the tide-steams and wind-driven swells from across the Atlantic
at various stages of the twice-daily rise and fall "tidal
regime", can gain year-round all-tides access to/from here
to all the major licenced "tidal stream" areas in the
Firth.
42. The convenience of a Gills Harbour base
is underlined by pointing out that using it will allow year-round
access to the Crown Estate's leased areas for vessels (includes
catamarans) as above without the need of transiting the "broken
waters" (ie in layman's language "rough seas")
of the two main tidal races on the Pentland Firth's southern side.
43. Those are (a) The Merry Men of Mey,
which starts on each twice-daily ebb-tide just west of St. John's
Point, Gills Bay's western extremity and (b) the Bores of Duncansby,
a flood-tide phenomenon.
44. The "Men" fans during the
next six hours outwards in a NW direction to a maximum width of
two miles as broken seas from there to Hoy (Orkney) during the
west-flowing ebb stream; the Admiralty cautions that, with West
or North West gales, the violence of the multi-directional breaking
seas "can hardly be exaggerated".
45. The Bores, sometimes misnamed as the
"Duncansby Race", are active on the daily 12 hours of
east-flowing floodtide, and is the twice-daily area of breaking
swells seen just offshore from John O'Groats, "working"
on even the calmest days. This is said to have been known by 18th
century sailors as "Hell's Mouth".
46. A recent Fatal Accident Inquiry (6.09)
held in Kirkwall, Orkney, into the tragic deaths of two Indian
seamen swept off their feet and on to protruding deck machinery
by 8 metre swells while working securing anchors on deck on the
74,000 tonne Singapore tanker FR8 Venture shortly after the vessel
entered the Pentland Firth from Scapa Flow (at the planned start
of a voyage carrying a crude-oil cargo to Houston, Texas) on 11.11.06,
may have shed some light on winter Pentland Firth swell conditions.
47. In evidence, Captain James Winterburn,
of the Scrabster-Stromness ferry Hamnavoe, stated that breaking
seas of 8m were not unexpected in the accident scene to the south
of Hoy, adding that he had encountered 12 m swells (c almost 40')
in the Firth. Captain Winterburn's ferry was in visual range of
the laden tanker at the time. This is the winter reality of the
Men of Mey area.
48. It is not possible to gain sea access
to any of the prospective Crown Estate licensed Pentland Firth
tidal stream areas (eg for inspection/regular maintenance) from
any Scottish mainland port apart from Gills Harbour, without having
to sail though such "wild water" zones, either while
outward or inward bound.
49. This has important implications for
(a) productivity and (b) for the recruitment of young graduate/craft-skilled
engineers needed to bring Pentland Firth tidal-stream electricity
"on line"; renewable companies typically pay marginally
below oil & gas industry rates. Nothing would disillusion
young staff more quickly than having to sail through such waters
daily to get to their workplace, when they could travel by road
to Gills Harbour and get safe sea-passage to the Crown Estate
leased areas from there, without facing such discomfort or even
dangers.
50. We have consistently stated to would
be developers that winter experience for "manpower and machinery"
is essential. We believe that that this message has been/is being
taken "on board". (In this context, "manpower"
includes females and "machinery" means "tidal stream
generating devices deployed in the E Pentland Firth").
51. My fellow-director William Simpson and
myself both told the Crown Estate's Scottish Marine Energy Manager
Mr Alasdair Rankin that it is more important to get things "right",
rather than "early" at a meeting shortly after the MP
made his criticism public.
52. The Lib Dem representative did not state
that he was a former chairman of the Harbour Trust at Scrabster,
Caithness c 16 miles from here; but at the "wrong" (ie
west) side of the Men of Mey tide-race on the ebbs from the Crown
Estate's tidal stream lease areas.
53. We have unencumbered ownership/control
over the Inner Basin being deepened plus adjoining areas; it is
adjacent to our 8m wide hard slipway, the area's best, and to
Council's modern access road, also 8m wide, from the A 836 and
so on to the UK main road network. Our South Quay lies adjacent
to this Council road.
54. This route to the Gills Harbour ferry
terminal carries much of Orkney's (population c 20,000) "import/export"
trade by articulated HGV trucks: (eg building supplies, groceries
etc. inwards; "vivier" shellfish trucks, live sheep,
beef products and salmon outwards). Gills Harbour is the Mainland
base for the 50 full-time job equivalent shore and ship-based
officers, crews and staff employed by Pentland Ferries, almost
all of whom reside locally.
55. It puts no drain on the resources of
HM Treasury, for this is the only un-subsidised year-round RO/RO
service to any Scotland's offshore islands. Records of Gills Bay's
use for Orkney (popn c 20,000) crossings go back to the late Middle
Ages.
56. The ferry operates across the traditional
"short sea route" from NE Caithness to Orkney; the quickest
and most sheltered route to the island group with St Margaret's
Hope, its island terminus, being on Orkney's main road network,
via the Churchill Barriers.
57. In contrast, the longer, (28 miles)
more exposed route crosses the Western approaches of the Pentland
Firth from Scrabster, Caithness to Stromness, Orkney. It is operated
by North Link Ferries, part of Caledonian McBrayne, the (Scottish)
state shipping line, and gets c £10 million in annual taxpayers'
subsidy, guaranteed under the current contract until 2012, for
passengers only.
58. The European Commission forbids freight
subsidies, as there is a commercial operator Pentland Ferries
Ltd serving the same Orkney Islands market year-round from Gills
here.
59. The revenue cost to UK taxpayers of
the W. Pentland Firth crossing alone will be near £100 million
in the period 2001-12; at a time when its Gills rival can do it
commercially and yet find more than £15 million from revenue
income to fund a brand-new vessel, plus undertaking major port
enhancements here.
60. The former is broadly equal to £70:00
for every passenger who steps on board the c 8,600 tonne mini-liner
ferry Hamnavoe, (three times the deadweight tonnage of its P&O
Ferries predecessor) owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, in a
lease deal negotiated by Scottish transport civil servants during
Sir Fred Goodwin's heyday.
61. Almost £20 million of public money
was spent less than a decade ago in building a deep-water pier
at Scrabster to "accommodate" the above.
62. We supported this, although its value
as an Orkney ferry terminal was negligible. The pier would be
useful for "alongside" berthing of summer cruise liners,
and we (and others) believed that it could become the primary
Mainland offshore supply base for the large "new Atlantic
Frontier" oil and gas-fields, west of Shetland. However winter
sea-conditions alongside the pier thwarted this, with the main
international offshore engineering business pulling out after
three years; although some oil-tenders continue to use Scrabster.
63. At Gills Harbour, we have had a 20-plus
year policy of not criticising Scrabster's Trust; but some members/directors
have doubts if this is being reciprocated as regards small-vessel
suitability for E Pentland Firth tidal stream developers.
64. The ex-Gills year-round thrice-daily
service is popular and profitable. Last year Pentland Ferries
replaced its ageing RO:RO ship Claymore with a vessel designed
for the 15-mile route; the brand-new £10 million 70 m long
catamaran vessel Pentalina.
65. Pentland Ferries MD is Andrew Banks,
of St Margaret's Hope, Orkney. His business acumen has been widely
admired in the Scottish transport industry and beyond; it could
be a "plus" factor in attracting private-sector tidal-stream
developers to Gills.
66. Pentland Ferries' vehicle marshalling
area and terminal buildings are constructed on reclaimed inter-tidal
foreshore owned by our community body.
67. But its 100m long breakwater/berth,
an imaginatively internally and externally strengthened recycled
former dry-dock, is emplaced on pre-levelled seabed owned by the
Crown Estate. The "interior" of the former dock is in-filled
with rock-spoil ballast removed from the main Gills Harbour entrance
channel in a continuing one-off dredging operation. There is a
natural depth of c minus 4 metres LAT (lowest astronomical tide)
at the seaward end of the breakwater, dredged inwards from there.
There is negligible silting at Gills.
68. We at Gills Harbour Ltd are not parties
to the agreements between the Crown Estate and Pentland Ferries
that have secured "almost always" access for its modern
ship. There has never been a problem in a safe crossing of the
Firth from here, only with the inter-face with the land, but the
arrangements between those two parties has enabled a solution
to be found.
69. The breakwater/berth has also sheltered
our Inner Basin, which had previously been subject to small, but
significant, swells during strong or gale-force NW winds. Even
if the Crown Estate were not acting itself as "enabling agent
and driving force" for E. Pentland Firth tidal stream developments,
operators would have still have to thank that body for enabling
significant safety improvement here.
70. The biggest mobile crane available in
Caithness can also use the Gills Harbour council access road;
recently an operator lifted a 15 m 30 tonne tender boat on to
our adjacent South Quay for prop-shaft repairs etc.
71. At the first "Caithness after Dounreay"
Conference in 2006, then Energy Minister Rt. Hon. Malcolm Wicks
publicly pledged taxpayers' money support for generic Pentland
Firth tidal energy research, as against providing grants to generating
device developers, as previously.
72. Amongst the academic/research bodies
Involved is the Environmental Research Institute, part of the
University of the Highlands and Islands project at Thurso, Caithness,
that co-operates with other (mainly UK) universities in its studies
into the nature of the Pentland Firth's ever-changing fast-flowing
water-column.
73. Its research catamaran Aurora is normally
based at Gills Harbour, with one of our directors William Simpson
as skipper; the Simpson family own nearby Stroma island, that
they use as a sheep-farm etc, serviced from here.
74. The residual knowledge-base about the
detailed timings, strengths and variables of the complex tidal-streams
in the areas being presently being licensing by the Crown Estate
lies with professional small-boat sailors here and in other coastal
ports of NE Caithness; Willie Simpson and Billy Magee are amongst
the most knowledgeable of the present generation and their expertise
has been/is being regularly sought by several would-be developers
or their sub-contractors.
75. This expertise peaked in Victorian times
when skilled local pilots used small sailing/rowing "yoles"
(clinker-built wooden dories of c five to six metres long, with
Viking-era antecedents) to access windjammers, and so played a
key part in the ensuring the flow of products from East to West
coast Britain, plus from the former and from much of NW Europe
to/from North America and beyond.
76. The Pentland Firth pilots learned to
extract every ounce of forward movement from the tide-streams
at all different stages of the twice-daily tide cycle and in almost
all weather and swell conditions to safely guide their cargo-ship
"charges" through the channel.
77. They knew that, by "tacking"
in the narrow confines of the Firth, they could guide those sailing-ships
against the wind, but never proceed against a tide-stream. This
was important in the era before certificated ships' masters and
enforced by marine insurers, who insisted on local pilots being
hired for Pentland Firth transits, on pain of otherwise denying
cover.
78. As well as pilotage, cod fishing by
hand-line (for salt-dried export to S. Europe) from wide-painted
"yoles" was a 18th-19th C staple of the local economy
; again detailed knowledge of the tide-streams in ever-varying
wind and swell conditions was essential, as it was only during
the tide-turn ("slack water" locally) that fishing lines
could be dropped plumb to the "catching zone" a few
metres above the sea-floor.
79. There is known to be a wide variation
in the times of "high water" in very short distances
both along the southern shores of the Firth and outwards from
the coast; the Magee Hypothesis suggests that this variation can
be utilised, by judicially emplacing arrays, so that round-the-clock
electricity generation becomes possible.
80. Billy Magee is one of only a handful
of persons with a lifetime's experience of using (motorised) yoles
in those waters. An important aim of the multi-million pound research
programme currently under way is retrieving the 19th C knowledge
by electronic means and adding to it with details of the sea-bed
topography and other factors; all necessary before generating
device deployment takes place.
81. As a Fellow of the Energy Institute,
I am well aware that round-the-clock "base-load" electricity
(which does not need back-up generation) is more valuable than
even the predictable power output that might be normally expected
from tidal stream electricity, (ie if there was to be zero generation
on the tide-turn periods).
82. As stated, we believe that winter research
and development is essential for Pentland Firth tidal stream electricity
to reach its hoped-for fruition; this adds to Gills Harbour's
attractiveness as a base for vessels as above, as clearly the
"obstacles" of the tide-races (Men of Mey, Bores etc)
are at their most potentially-vicious in the windiest season,
when sea-swells are at a maximum and daylight hours are short.
83. Several past coastal developments in
Caithness that went ahead without prior (or inadequate) winter-season
studies, proved economic "disasters"; those include
the collapse in a storm of the Wick Bay breakwater project of
the 1870s, from which the town's economy has arguably never recovered;
at the time it was the Western world's biggest fishing port, but
now only has two trawlers remaining.
84. Lessons from recent history involve
the multi-million pound cost of retro-fitted measures needed to
combat the massive seaweed ingress into the main Dounreay Prototype
Fast Reactor (PFR) seawater coolant intake in the early 1980s.
85. In 1997, there was the destruction of
the "Osprey" wave-power device emplaced by Inverness
company Wavegen off Dounreay, which broke up in moderate swells
before a single unit of electricity had been generated.
86. This arguably put back the development
of wave-power by some years; the most promising concepts, now
under test, use different technologies, such as the Pelamis "sea-snake"
and the near-shore sea-bed mounted "Oyster" "fresh
water hydro" system (by hydraulic pump) currently under test
at EMEC.
87. This is the European Marine Energy Centre
with offices at Stromness, Orkney that has a wave-power test site
nearby and its tidal stream one off the island of Eday, Orkney.
Its principal Mr Neil Kermode, has publicly cautioned over the
premature deployment of tidal stream devices in the Firth here.
88. The prospect of a multi-billion pound
eventual boost and non-polluting electricity generation on a very
large scale to the economies of Caithness, Highland, Scotland
and the UK, is too great to be put at risk by inadequate preparation;
and that means winter studies/works/inspections.
89. Britain is not the only country looking
towards tidal stream for future "green power"; but the
presence of the world-scale resources of the Eastern Firth's streams,
all easily accessible from Gills Harbour without the need to cross
tide-races, could give the UK's nascent industry an edge in export
markets.
90. It is only in winter that the depth
of the Firth's water column affected by heavy swells, or the preponderance
(or otherwise) of suspended solids (from sand to seaware and flotsam)
can be fully tested.
91. As all tidal-stream generating devices
are prototypes, there is a widespread belief in the industry that
successful deployment/proving over several winter seasons (perhaps
five years) in Pentland Firth will be necessary before large-scale
arrays are placed in the water.
92. Of course some persons get agitated
about the lack of certainty; but adequate testing allowing any
necessary modifications to turbines and operating procedures must
be the proper way forward.
93. The detailed scale of the Firth's renewable
electricity potential cannot be accurately predicted until those
and other questions are answered, although it is generally thought
to be in the region of 6,000 to 10,000 MW. (Perhaps the equivalent
to six to eight nuclear or coal-fired power stations).
94. If round-the-clock generation proves
difficult or impossible, that implies back-up "pumped hydro"
storage, most likely in Scotland' Great Glen, as with the predominantly
"uphill-pumped, secondary hydro" power station at Foyers,
on Loch Ness-side. It was built in the early 1970s as the "twin"
of Dounreay PFR, (250 MW) where generation output was known in
advance to be variable. (To allow for scientific/engineering experiments
to take place).
95. All energy costs are closely related
to the world oil price; thanks to intervention of taxpayers' monies
collected by the UK Government, the pace of tidal stream development
has not slackened. But it would be naïve to expect that the
global recession will have no effect.
96. Turning locally, we at Gills Harbour
think that it should be (economically) feasible to build a possible
new quay on the North side of the Inner Basin's edge that would
give a guaranteed depth of c minus 3m LAT, gaining its shelter
from the ferry breakwater/berth.
97. Over the coming decade, taxpayers' funds
will be at a premium and will need to be utilised as judicially
as possible; we are mindful of the potential pain, as outlined
recently by regulator OFGEM, (Office of the Gas & Electricity
Markets) of the higher household energy prices that a substantial
switch-over to low CO2 electricity will mean for consumers on
low fixed incomes, including many pensioners.
98. Perhaps there may be a case for an adjudication
panel of private and public sector "experts" to advise
on the most judicious use of any public monies earmarked for tidal
stream infrastructure from Department of Energy and Climate Change,
to guard against any "conflicts". This may be a matter
that your Committee might consider commenting on.
99. In the early years of E Pentland Firth
tidal stream electricity, the recently announced replacement of
the 50-year-old 132kV Beauly to Denny (eg Inverness to Stirling)
Grid line by one of 400,000kV, will be essential.
100. Industry leaders consider that it could
take as long as a decade after the E Pentland Firth tidal-stream
concept is proven before a "high voltage, direct current"
(HVDC) cable can be laid from here on the seabed down Britain's
East coast to the main UK electricity markets.
101. The strong possibility that there could
be a surplus of "green" Pentland Firth electricity available
locally, especially in the early years, should be seen as an opportunity,
not a disadvantage. Already there is talk of an energy-hungry
computer data-processing complex at nearby Mey; heat for "polytunnel"
horticulture is a possibility, or the cultivation of specialist
algae, or even hydrogen, as future fuels.
102. It was in 1907 that playwright/political
philosopher George Bernard Shaw first drew attention (in a Fabian
Society paper) to the power potential of the Pentland Firth that
he had observed while crossing on the mail steamer to Scapa Bay
(Kirkwall) for Orkney trout fishing holidays. He thought that
its electricity output could one day spare miners the drudgery
of dark, unhealthy, underground coal "howking". Aged
91, he came back to that theme in a letter to the Times during
the 20th C's severest freeze-up in 1947; the technology then did
not then exist, but now could be within touching distance now,
incorporating advances pioneered in the North Sea oil industry.
103. The aftermath of the 1947 winter saw
the first studies into the "fast reactor" concept that
led to the Dounreay experiment; a development hastened by the
"Great London Smog" of 1952, with c 10,000 deaths, the
UK's single largest 20th C environmental disaster.
104. Gills Harbour Ltd is a non-political
body, but when it comes to the fields of transport and energy
in the UK, politics is unavoidable.
105. The father-figure of the "original"
Gills Pier was Dr Gavin Clark, MP for Caithness, who was J. Keir
Hardie's founding Vice President of the Scottish Labour Party;
but the necessary legislation was passed by a Conservative administration.
106. Dr Clark was in turn the "mentor"
to a young Tom Johnston, who spear-headed, first as Secretary
of State for Scotland and then as chairman, the construction of
his vision of harnessing Scottish Highland rivers with hydro-electric
power stations and associated dams, tunnels, etc during the 1950s/60s;
those were built for the public sector, when UK bank interest
rates were c 3%. To realise his dream of providing electricity
lines to (almost) every home in the thinly populated Highlands,
he had to agree to his N of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board selling
power to industry in the Glasgow/Edinburgh belt; hence the Beauly
to Denny Grid line.
107. Ever since, energy exploitation/production
has been the driving force in the economy of the Highlands &
Islands. Local MP Sir David Robertson persuaded his Conservative
Government in 1954 to choose Dounreay as the site for the UK's
experimental uranium-fired Dounreay Fast Reactor, while, in 1966,
a Labour administration picked Dounreay for the follow-up plutonium-burning
Prototype Fast Reactor, completed in the early 1970s.
108. By that time the exploitation of North
Sea oil and gas was under way with the construction of rig-building
yards, other manufacturing facilities, crude-oil terminals etc,
to be followed later by manning and servicing of the offshore
production platforms.
109. Since the late 1980s there has been
growing interest in "renewables" other than the installed
hydro; indeed the first serious study of Britain's offshore tidal
streams to highlight the Pentland Firth was conducted for the
Harwell-based Energy Technology Support Unit (ETSU) in the early
1990s.
110. At the time of the hydro projects,
the UK was deeply indebted (WWII borrowings from the USA), as
is now the case, this time due to the effects of the 2008 international
banking crisis. Credit scarcity could be a problem; could there
be any merit in studying the financing of the N of S Hydro Electric
Board in the 1950s to see if any modern lessons are applicable?
Ironically, its still-nationalised Norwegian equivalent Statkraft
is expected to be part of a successful consortium for a Crown
Estate tidal stream licence here.
111. Almost three centuries ago (early 1700s)
Gills Bay played an important role in Britain's first "Industrial
Revolution" by supplying blocks of semi-manufactured "soda
ash", an essential ingredient of "fast" dyes for
the textile industry, as well as necessary for the mass production
manufacture of glass and soap; the alkaline product was made from
seaweed harvested from its inter-tidal zone, cut, dried and liquefied
in kilns here and then allowed to solidify, before being broken
up into smaller "slabs" for onward shipping.
112. Now with the Crown Estate's licencing
of sea-bed areas in the E Pentland Firth, Gills Harbour Ltd hopes
and expects to play important role in Britain's new "marine
energy" revolution and invites your goodwill.
113. We at Gills Harbour Ltd are happy to
discuss/demonstrate any of the above with any Committee members
and provide verbal evidence for cross-examination if requested.
January 2010
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