ORKNEY'S ENERGY FUTURE
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
ELECTRICITY GENERATION
Orkney has the capacity to generate more energy from renewable sources. This could be from:
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Onshore wind (as explored in this project)
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Offshore wind
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Solar
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Tidal
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Wave
Having a broader mix of renewable sources could provide a more predictable electricity supply with less potential for intermittency. The potential generation from these sources could be investigated further by future work.
The challenges faced by tidal energy have been explored and the annual energy that could be generated from one device deployed in Orkney waters quantified.
HYDROGEN
There is a drive towards a hydrogen economy in Orkney, partly due to the research and development capability that has grown there. There could be further study in to how surplus electricity could contribute to enabling a future hydrogen economy.
Potential uses of hydrogen have been explored in this project for ferries and public buses.
DECARBONISATION
This project has focused on domestic heating, road transport and marine transport. There are other fossil fuel heavy sectors that would require to be decarbonised to meet the goal of a fossil fuel free energy system in 2030. Agriculture contributes 24% of the non-renewable energy consumption but is likely to be challenging to decarbonise. Given its magnitude, agriculture should be the next sector tackled by future research.