earthrise - The Isle of Eigg

many people believed by the year 2050 the work be powered entirely by renewable energy i'm russell beard and i'm here on Scotland's northwest coast to meet 82 Islanders who are leading the way the Isle of egg lies off the Scottish mainland across 11 kilometers of rough water to remote for connection to the mainland electricity grid the extraordinary Island is built the road today was 15 gusting up to sort of 25 so it's a breeze I'm being very pretty calm day ya know the almost constant wind is the first of eggs precious renewable resources what's this year you've got your wrench yes we're gonna we're gonna check your baseball we start to check the tension of the box it's it's a knackering job dude you can just feel it just tightening it up I guess all the time there's very slight vibrations in the constant wind will loosen these bolts so it's a kind of ongoing process to keep them tight but wind is only one of the renewable energy sources the Islanders rely on the four six kilowatt wind turbines are linked by an underground cable to a 30 kilowatt photovoltaic array and from there to three hydroelectric turbines but the trick with renewable energy is that you have to be able to store it and that's where the state-of-the-art battery system comes in power is available 24 hours a day to everybody all the time even the the installers that didn't know whether it would work no just ever done this before so the real incredible because our so simple what exactly had never been done before that sounds very interesting nobody is ever filing the three energies as they as it was at Ian Cartwright he was there yeah it's the big brains behind it was like will it will they sing together and the lead singer in this three-part harmony is the main hydro generator the backbone of eggs per grid but as with most stars getting up close can be difficult we were driving up here with Eddie and they've had some really stormy weather the last week there and a trees come down and blocked away so he's gone off in the vehicle and he's gonna come and meet us at the other end we're gonna walk up here to the weir to where they have one of the main hydro and generators and that's like one of the key power sources of the island so we're gonna go up and have a look at that just now mind your head the water that falls over this knotch and collects in the box underneath it runs down the pipe here and that pipe goes nearly a kilometer to where the hydro is which is nearly 100 meters below us so all the turbine in the actual moving parts that's all don't kill a metre away okay at the bottom of the as we'll see the cliff water flowing from the islands Peak provides up to 112 kilowatts of hydroelectricity from the main generator alone and when energy levels fall off water is redirected through the generator driving more power back into the grid topping up the storage batteries what we're doing all the time is we're balancing what the island is using there if again it's amazingly loud you can hear the force being generated by that war nearly 100 meters it's amazing you really feel it can feel the vibrations in the room as well the system was originally funded by government grants and prize money but now it must pay for itself oh my game are you understand you are the lady to ask about buying electricity cards yes if you do that I can sell you a card yeah that'll be great yes we decided when we're putting the system in that it would be a really good idea to have prepayment meters so that takes away the sort of whole admin side has an electric bills every quarter and what have you if there's plenty power we put up a green poster saying use as much energy as you want but if you know the waters law for instance we've put up a red sign that says you know please try and conserve you your energy use and it works there you go sort that somewhere safe right there you try you - okay it's just in here yes okay yeah let's tell it and that's it is that yeah brilliant so now let me give you all the power in the world Jaime ardha represents a new generation of Islanders he came here to set up an adventure tourism business without a grid here without the 24/7 player do you think it would have been feasible as feasible for you to come and and start a new life here it's made it so much easier having the grid definitely definitely I mean the island has so many drawers anyway not just the power thing you know but because of the power it's just brought people here that maybe wouldn't have been able to set up home here it's clear that although it's renewable energy that powers this island is the community that makes it work

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 52,493

Rating: 4.9209042 out of 5

Keywords: 1243149517001, russell beard, scotland, Earthrise, renewable energy, Eigg, al Jazeera, environment, youtube, isle of eigg, AJE, aljazeera, eco, energy

Id: HMCgSf-QSKo

Length: 5min 57sec (357 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 07 2011