For decades the Shetland Islands exploited the fossil fuel reserves of the North Sea. Some time ago, however, the archipelago decided to change strategy entirely. And it did so so effectively that it is now on the verge of freeing itself completely from oil.

Shetland close to breaking free from oil

The energy transition planned by the administrators of these islands, situated to the north of Scotland, has left no clean energy source unexplored as an alternative to environmentally harmful fossil fuels. One example is the power plant harnessing tidal energy, which is particularly strong in the area. But the twenty thousand inhabitants have also decided to install wind turbines in their gardens and to cover the roofs of their homes with solar panels (even though in winter the sun is present for a maximum of six hours a day).
"We haven't yet achieved full self-sufficiency, but the goal we set ourselves is now within reach," Jim Dickson told the French television channel BfmTv, the owner of a house in Braer, a village frequently battered by the wind. To power his home (and his 100 per cent electric Nissan) the retired man invested in a wind turbine that not only provides all the energy he needs, but also allows him to feed some of it back into the local grid.

The 1993 Braer ecological disaster

Jim's life was marked by the Braer ecological disaster. It was 1993 and an oil tanker found itself caught in a full storm: tossed about and by then out of control, the vessel ended its course on the rocks of Quendale Bay. The result was the spillage of 84,799 tonnes of crude oil into the sea and the tragic subsequent sight of birds drowned in the black tide. "We may still need hydrocarbons to fuel aircraft engines, but we should no longer be generating electricity with them. It's an absurdity," added the Shetland Islands resident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PEiMfis2oY
The decision by the islands to rely solely on renewable sources is also particularly significant from a symbolic point of view: it was here, in the 1970s, that a vast oil field was discovered — the Brent field, to the east of the archipelago. The name itself has become a global emblem.

An enormous hydro-wind potential

Today, instead, Shetland can aspire to become famous thanks to the three 100-kilowatt hydro-wind turbines installed by the company Nova Innovation at the Bluemull Sound site (Scotland as a whole could make full use of its tidal energy capacity: it has access to 24 per cent of the potential of the entire continent). To complete the project, however, a thorough overhaul of the electricity grid is also needed, including in particular a direct connection between the archipelago and the United Kingdom. Otherwise, all the energy produced by Shetland's wind and hydro-wind farms will remain "stranded" on the islands in the North Sea.