Views from an Island

  The Scourge of Fuel Poverty A friend got in touch as a result of my recent postings on home energy efficiency. He is a pensioner who lives on an island in a recently built and well insulated ‘eco flat’ owned by a housing association. In common with most of Scotland’s islands mains gas isn’t available and so his flat has electric heating. As an environmentally conscious citizen he had signed up to an energy supplier who provided all their electricity from renewable sources. As a consequence of the huge differential in price between natural gas and electricity ( electricity is approximately 5 times more expensive per kWh than gas ), despite living in a modern, well insulated and fairly small flat he was suffering from fuel poverty. The definition of fuel poverty was changed a few years ago but it roughly equates to spending more than 10% of your income on fuel. Scotland suffers significantly more from fuel poverty than the rest of the UK by virtue of its harsher climate and gener

  When Alex Salmond said in 2011 that “Scotland had won the energy lottery, not once but twice”, and that Scotland was set to become “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy”   he was absolutely correct. We won this geological and geographic lottery firstly with the discovery of oil and now we have won it again with 25% of Europe’s wind and tidal energy opportunity and 10% of its wave energy resource. In the modern world energy is the king of all commodities. That is why oil was often referred to as black gold. Shortly after Scotland’s oil reserves were discovered, Scottish Office economist professor Gavin McCrone suggested that an Independent Scotland would have “a chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe" . What was true of oil back then is equally true of renewable energy now. More so in fact, as was delightfully and ironically highlighted a few years ago by the hapless UKIP candidate who publicly asked the question,

  It is deeply disappointing to learn that CMAL has effectively cut Ferguson Marine out of the tendering process for its next ferry orders. That they have done so with the tacit approval of the Scottish Government is perplexing. Why would you nationalise a shipyard and then place obstacles in the way of its success? The Scottish Government has apparently done this on the basis that Ferguson Marine cannot be allowed to compete for new work until it has finished the contract for the controversial two ferries currently under construction. They can’t tender for new orders until the yard ‘has got its act together’! This might sound reasonable but it is actually very punitive and will go a long way towards preventing the yard becoming succesful. Fergusons Marine has gone into liquidation, it’s former owner has gone and the senior management has been replaced by a so called ‘turnaround manager’ earning around £1 million per annum. The Scottish Government needs to show faith in its own shi

  I have a confession to make.   I like the Green MSP Alison Johnstone. In fact I grew quite fond of her when we served together on the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism committee. She is warm hearted, smart and sensible and has a willingness to make compromises. I think she will make a good Presiding Officer. I say this despite her decision along with the SPCB ( Scottish Parliament Corporate Body ) to pursue the matter of banning demonstrations from the grounds of the Parliament. They say it is only some demonstrations that will be banned, but which ones? and who gets to decide which will be banned and which not? Over five years in Parliament I never once saw a demonstration that was a problem, including the independence campaigners who decided to camp there for a considerable period. They were entirely inoffensive and in no way interfered with the business of the Parliament. Their only crime, I believe, was to offend the prissy sense of propriety that has grow

  Why the Scottish Green Party won’t solve the climate change challenge ( Part 2 ) The second myth and lazy assumption peddled by the Scottish Green Party is that it would be relatively easy and inexpensive to insulate our homes and buildings to a high standard, such that they can be easily heated by a heat pump. All that is missing, they repeatedly claim, is the political will to do so. It is relatively easy, albeit expensive, to insulate to a high standard in a new build home. Indeed Scottish Building Standards ensure that you have no alternative. To do so in a retrofit situation is quite a different proposition. The most effective class of commonly used insulation is made from polyisocyanurate. This is the type of insulation that was used in   Grenfell Tower and which contributed to the horrific fire. The public enquiry discovered that the manufacturers had falsified the flammability tests and that this was a significant factor in this appalling disaster. Of course any builder