power from the north

Power from the

Northwww.SHETLAND.org

Our islands provide the ultimate resource for

all energy industries.

Wind. Wave. Tidal. Oil. Gas.!

So far away. So close Connected

And it’s official: the best place to live in rural Scotland!

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Power from the North was produced by Promote Shetland.Print of this publication was supported by Highland and Islands Enterprise.

Disclaimer: Although Promote Shetland has taken reasonable steps to confirm the information contained in this publication at the time of publishing, it cannot guarantee that the information published is and remains accurate.

Photography: Chloe Garrick, Didier Piquer, Kieran Murray, BP, Lerwick Port Authority, John Coutts, Shetland Islands Council, PSBS.

www.SHETLAND.org

4 P O W E R F R O M T H E N O R T H www.SHETLAND.org

SHETLAND: Nowhere else combines 30 years experience at the cutting edge of oil and gas technology with the UK’s greatest potential for generating renewable energy – tidal, wave and wind.

SHETLAND: Wired to succeed. The SHEFA-2 fibre optic cable and council-owned Shetland Telecom will see some of the UK’s fastest broadband speeds. And the 600 megawatt interconnector will make the power of the isles available to the UK grid.

SHETLAND: Perfectly positioned to handle both supply and support for the Atlantic oil and gas developments, and identified as such by the Scottish Government.

SHETLAND: Ideally set for imminent decommissioning work in the UK sector of the North Sea in terms of both geography and infrastructure. And with internationally-backed local companies equipped and experienced in the largest engineering projects, shipping services, management and maintenance.

SHETLAND: some of Europe’s best ports and harbour facilities.

SHETLAND: Dynamic political, community and Governmental support for development; including, in the current environment, something highly unusual – the availability of economic help.

SHETLAND: The best quality of life in Scotland – according to the latest Halifax Bank of Scotland survey.

The Shetland Isles: Northernmost

Powerhouse

www.SHETLAND.org P O W E R F R O M T H E N O R T H 5

S hetland history has a habit of opening new chapters all the time. When the Chancellor announced,

in his March budget, £3 billion in new tax allowances for the development of large and deep oil fields in the North Atlantic, it simply reflected what locals knew was already happening. Shetland’s harbours had for months been buzzing with activity. The waters teemed with exploration and survey vessels, and within a week Faroe Petroleum had stated their intention to drill the North Uist well, 78 miles west of the islands.

Faroe’s chief executive Graham Stewart said: “We are very pleased to announce the spudding of this frontier exploration well in one of our core areas. The North Uist prospect offers significant resource potential and is in close proximity to a number of important discoveries on the Atlantic Margin Corona Ridge, including Rosebank and Cambo.”

Drilling will be carried out for Faroe by BP Exploration, a company whose relationship with Shetland goes back to the very beginning of North Sea Oil. Immediately afterwards, it was announced that the international group Subsea 7 had won the £170 million contract for the

complex Cheviot pipeline project, this time east of Shetland.

BP operates the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal, still the biggest in Europe and now looking at a new lease of life with the redevelopment of the Schiehallion Field and extension of Clair.

Then there is the Total’s Laggan-Tormore project, landfall for which is right next door to Sullom Voe. The £2.5bn project will bring gas from 125km North West of Shetland to the isles for processing, and then piping south to the mainland markets. Total is aiming to open up the West Shetland basin to further development.

A Place in History


S hetland is used to this sort of thing. It is used to business, to activity, to handling the urgent and stringent

demands of the oil and gas industry. It has the human resources and the infrastructure to cope. The dynamism. The energy. The knowledge.

It took 6000 workers six years to build the Sullom Voe Terminal. It took a change in the law of the land to give Shetland Islands Council – or Zetland County council as it was – the power both to provide permission and to benefit, via its Charitable Trust, from the income generated.!

The Council also became operators of one of the UK’s biggest ports at Sullom Voe, and a modern, jet-capable airport at Scatsta, one of three operational airports in the islands, in addition to many functioning airstrips.!

The first oil flowed from the Ninian and Brent system to Sullom Voe in 1978, and since then, Shetland has become as identified with oil and gas as it has always been with fine quality fish, knitwear and the best mariners in the world.

It has become known as a place where you can get things done.

Sullom Voe Terminal

The Sullom Voe Terminal is located at the northern end of the largest of the Shetland Islands. It is one of the largest oil!terminals in Europe.

The terminal was built between 1975 and 1981 and covers 1000 acres. Its main purpose is to act as a buffer between the producing fields offshore and tankers waiting to ship oil to refineries worldwide. The terminal has been designed to allow continuous production offshore, even in bad weather.

The Sullom Voe Terminal is operated by BP and handles production from more than two-dozen oilfields in the east Shetland Basin, between Shetland and Norway. Approximately 20 different companies have interests in the terminal, which receives production through the Brent and Ninian pipeline systems.

Oil from BP’s West of Shetland Schiehallion field, has been brought to Sullom Voe since August 1998 by shuttle tanker. At peak production an average of 142,000 barrels per day will be imported using a purpose built, double hulled shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch. Dedicated storage and pumping facilities were upgraded during 1997. A major upgrading and refurbishment project will begin in 2013,

necessitating a shut down of the field until 2014, when production will restart with a new floating production vessel.

Gas is also imported from West of Shetland fields via a 20-inch pipeline. Some of this gas is dried, treated to remove H2S and used as fuel in the Power Station. The remainder is exported to the Magnus platform via another 20-inch pipeline, where it is used for Enhanced Oil Recovery.

In 2003/04 a new 22-inch oil pipeline was laid between Clair and Sullom Voe and terminal reception facilities built, including a receiver for pipeline cleaning pigs. The Clair oil field came on stream in!February 2005. The oil will be stored at Sullom Voe prior to loading onto export tankers. Gas from Clair will be imported to Sullom Voe via the existing 20-inch West of Shetland gas pipeline.

As a result of its remote location, the Sullom Voe Terminal has to be entirely self-sufficient, particularly where emergency services are concerned. On site there is a fire brigade and a pollution response team, both of which hold regular exercises to test their readiness to cope with emergencies.

The Islands are Buzzing


Laggan-‐Tormore – the

future of UK gas supply

Total’s £2.5 billion Laggan-Tormore project is progressing apace, with frenetic activity taking place at the site, which adjoins the Sullom Voe Terminal. The project is thought to be worth £185 million to the local economy, and has included not only the construction of a temporary workers’ village, but will, long-term, see the building of a 100-bedroom hotel for the use of Total gas plant workers and paying guests.

Ship-spotters were enthused recently when the world’s largest pipe laying ship arrived in Firths Voe to start work on the subsea section of the Laggan-Tormore pipeline. The 300-metre Solitaire was involved in the pull-in phase of the pipeline, bringing pipe from the ship being brought to join the onshore section. This stretches from Total’s under-construction gas plant to the shore at Firths Voe. The 243-km pipeline will export compressed gas which will eventually join the national network.

The Laggan-Tormore Project represents an investment of £2.5 billion to build a strategically important gas transportation and processing facility opening up the West of Shetland basin for future exploration and development. The construction phase of the project will bring up to 800 jobs to the Shetland Islands and create about 70 full time posts associated with the production phase of the processing plant. Total says that numerous “spin off” opportunities will be created, adding significant long term benefit to the local community.

BP – The future’s bright

BP, one of the most significant presences in Shetland over the last three decades, is committed to the islands and is investing heavily in the future, notably in the second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the islands, the biggest in UK waters, and in the refurbishment of Schiehallion.

BP and its partners – Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron – are proceeding with the £4.5 billion Clair Ridge project, the second phase of development of the giant Clair field, west of Shetland.

This was welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron, who said: “I am delighted. This investment is great news for the country and provides a massive boost for jobs and growth. It shows the confidence that there is to invest in the North Sea – we have cutting edge technology, world class skills and expertise and a UK Government that is committed to do what we can to secure future investment.”

“Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. BP has produced some five billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over three billion more,” said Bob Dudley, BP’s group chief executive. “After some years of decline, we now see the potential to maintain our production from the North Sea at around 200,000-250,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day until 2030. And we are working on projects that will take production from some of our largest fields out towards 2050.”

The four BP-operated North Sea projects are part of a wave of new major oil and gas projects around the world that BP expects to come on

stream over the next five years. “The efficient management of giant fields such as Clair, using state-of-the-art technology to manage complex reservoirs and increase oil recovery, is an important element of BP’s strategy and one of the key drivers that we see generating value in BP’s upstream business,” said Dudley.

The Clair Ridge project, which will install two new bridge-linked platforms with the capability to produce an estimated 640 million barrels of oil, is planned to come on stream in 2016 and to extend production from the greater Clair area to 2050. In addition to the 600 people already working on the project, it will provide hundreds of UK engineering, drilling and oilfield services jobs over the field’s life.

The Clair partners have also announced the successful appraisal of an extension to the Clair field – South West Clair – confirming the overall Clair field complex’s status as the UK’s largest hydrocarbon resource with over seven billion barrels of oil and gas initially in place. The appraisal well also encountered a significant new hydrocarbon column in an overlying reservoir horizon, which is expected to support further development of the greater Clair field area in the future.

Earlier this year, BP and its partners also announced plans for the £3 billion redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, west of Shetland.

BP will use the latest technology to maximise recovery from the fields. Clair Ridge will include the first offshore deployment of advanced LoSal low salinity water reservoir injection capability and the partners are looking to employ polymer f lood technology on the Schiehallion and Loyal fields redevelopment to improve the sweep of the reservoir and overall recovery of oil.


F rom a technical point of view, local companies have the capabilities to tackle any project, large and small,

on land or at sea. It’s all about skill, and

personnel. Highly trained, experienced

staff are crucial in any industry. But

especially in Shetland with its unique

range of local conditions.

The expertise developed and carefully

honed in oil and gas and the marine field

generally have already been brought

to bear on decommissioning, project

management and the renewables industry.

Leading the way for many years has been

Peterson SBS (PSBS), who operate, among

a range of state of the art equipment, the

biggest crane in Shetland and indeed

within the whole PSBS group. Decades of

work with some of the biggest names in

the North Sea oil industry have placed

the company in a unique position, able

to handle the management of major

decommissioning and maintenance

projects through the full range of marine

services and all kinds of local projects,

large and small. PSBS was also responsible

for handling the inward shipping,

movement and erection of the Burradale

windfarm’s generators.

Companies like Shetland Composites

are already fully involved in the

renewables industry, with Fred Gibson’s

Lerwick-based company building the

prototypes for Pelaimis’s tank testing, as

well as a vast array of other objects in GRP,

kevlar or carbon fibre.

The historic Lerwick firm of Malakoff

can handle complete renewable power

installations, notably a revolutionary

multi-source generation service for the

island of Foula. Malakoff also services and

manages major power generation facilities

throughout the UK - including the 500 Mw

Greater Gabbard offshore windfarm off

Suffolk.

ZE1 Global brings together Malakoff

and three other companies with a

vast range of experience in marine,

hydrocarbon and renewables operations,

but with a view to developing renewables

as a major priority. Welding and fabrication

are specialities, and ZE1 functions as a

joint venture between three engineering

and fabrication companies and a fourth

business specialising in supply chain and

project management.

But these are just examples of the

strength in depth, the range of abilities

and the flexibility Shetland possesses.

Shetland is the right place: It has the

right skills, the right people and the right

commitment to providing the best service

to the most demanding clients.

Peterson SBS

“If it f loats, we can handle it. We can lift and shift anything”

, base managerPSBS is an international company which

prides itself on its Shetland origins – it goes back to 1973, and the first glimmerings of North Sea oil exploration – and the fact that it takes the can-do Shetland spirit throughout the UK and Europe.

But the Greenhead Base in Lerwick is not just its spiritual home. It is the centre for a breathtaking array of activities and capabilities, from the isles’ biggest mobile crane – it has a 250 tonne capacity – to pipeline storage, fuelling, decommissioning on an already massive scale, fast-turnaround shipping service and supply, and a burgeoning involvement in renewables.

Base manager Ann Hunter refuses to limit the company’s activities, which includes major

The Skills and the People


contracts at the Sullom Voe terminal and has involved decommissioning work at the old Swan Hunter shipyard on the Tyne, as well as in Lerwick.

“As they say, if it f loats, we’ll do agency on it,” she says. “If it can be lifted and shifted, we’ll lift it. We’ll shift it. No matter how big and valuable, no matter how small. Care and quality is the key. How you treat your smallest job is as important as how you handle your biggest.”

On a Wednesday at the end of April, every single one of PSBS’s cranes were in action, in activities ranging from major work at the new Total gas plant at Sullom Voe to lifting leisure craft into the water at Scalloway.

“And it’s not just our cranes,” says Ann. “Every crane in Shetland is working today. And for the next three or four days.” This being Shetland, apparently competing companies co-operate to ensure that customers get what they need, when they need it.”

Oil and gas is where PSBS – the initials stand for Shetland Base Services – started, but the Greenhead facilities and equipment are used by customers throughout Shetland and from all business sectors, including of course the energy field. The Burradale windfarm, which signed the way for the Viking project, saw heavy involvement from PSBS, from the landing of the components for the wind generators to their assembling and erection on site.

“If we see that there’s a market, then we’ll invest in the equipment we need. There’s already been a lot of investment. We have the people here too, who know how to use the equipment, but we’ve never been too big for our boots – we’re local and proud of it, and very much part of the community. We’re a Shetland company with a very strong commitment to safety and environmental responsibility. We’re not going to do anything that will affect the environment of Shetland. It will not happen.”

, decommissioning manager and deputy base manager, is not only a proud Shetlander, but an enthusiastic proponent of Shetland’s ideal location for every aspect of the energy industry.

“The geography is key for how we operate,” he says. In terms of oil and gas, what we can offer is proximity to the fields Lerwick is the perfect staging post for developments east and west of Shetland, and the evidence is everywhere, with the number of ships we have coming in to the base.”

But the geography works hugely in favour of renewables, too, with Shetland’s potential in tidal, wave and wind power generation offering enormous possibilities for PSBS.

“We’ve already shown that in our pioneering work with the Burradale wind farm and our experience in oil and gas has developed skills and resources that are equally relevant to the renewables industry, be that wind, wave or tidal, we can provide support to all areas.”

James is in charge of the Greenhead base’s decommissioning arm, and for him this aspect of Shetland’s future activity is “absolutely paramount”. Offshore work is always vastly expensive, he says.

“Towing distances from the field to shore are such that movement operations are expensive, to put it simply, the shorter the distance, the better. Shetland is nearest. We have the facilities, the track record, the experience. We’re the obvious choice.”

“And not just in Shetland. Peterson SBS works throughout the North Sea sector and the firm won a commendation from Shell for the difficult but successful decommissioning, with Veolia, of the multiple gas production platforms from Shell’s Indefatigable Field. Seventeen structures of weights up to 1200te were delivered on eight separate barges to the old Swan Hunter shipyard on the Tyne, for load-in and decommissioning.

There was the receipt, load-in and dismantling of TCP 2 Module Support Frame from the decommissioned Frigg Field in 2007. We project-managed the load-in at lerwick, which required significant engineering and preparatory work.”

“Then we co-ordinated and managed the engineering, planning, construction, fabrication and preparatory works needed to make the site and barge ready for the trailer load-in of the MSF from the S600 (skid railed) launch barge. That required required 358 axle lines, mobilised from all over Europe, America and Asia and Australia.”

“We contracted the multi-axle trailers, the tugs and supplied the craneage, haulage, cargo handling and all required labour and specialist trades to perform the operation. It was completed on schedule, with no significant incidents or lost time injuries. It was a five-month job, the biggest single item loaded into the UK to date, that we are aware of. It shows just what Shetland can do, safely and in an environmentally friendly way.”


MALAKOFF

Malakoff is one of the most familiar names in Shetland maritime history, its roots going back to the 19th century and Laurence Laurenson Goodlad’s boatbuilding business. Possibly – and it may just be a story – it was named after his wife, Mary, known as ‘Mally’. She was a nurse and cured coughs. Hence Mally-Cough!

It’s more likely that the Crimean fortress of Malakhov provided the name, and since then, the company, despite some setbacks and sieges, has become an absolutely crucial element in Shetland’s industrial life, notably during two world wars. Since 2003, following a management buyout, it has been Shetland-owned and is now active UK-wide from its Lerwick base.

It is now Shetland’s leading engineering and fabrication contractor. Says director Dougie Stevenson:

“Our roots are in marine engineering, but that’s by no means the whole story of what we do. Yes, we have slipways, we carried out boat repairs and boatbuilding in aluminium – the legendary Voe Boats. We do pipework, ship’s chandlery, electrical and general engineering, carpentry, load testing and maintenance work – we have the maintenance contract on the jetties at Sullom Voe, for example – but we’re also a turnkey supplier, an installer of renewable energy systems and we do maintenance and management on major projects throughout the UK.”

The company’s involvement in renewables brought it the £1.5 million contract to design, install and maintain the unique power supply system for the remote island of Foula. Using computer controlled, switchable wind, photovoltaic and hydro electric power sources, Shetland’s most remote island became the first in the archipelago to become totally self-sufficient in energy, and won an major environmental award.

The projects south are of a huge and highly prestigious nature, and include the Longannet and Cockenzie Power stations and the massive offshore wind farm known as Greater Gabbard, off the Suffolk coast.

It may seem surprising that a Lerwick firm’s reach extends that far south, but for Dougie, it’s a natural progression.

“It began in 2004, 2005 with work we were doing at Peterhead Power Station for Scottish and Southern. We’d had a bit of a slump in local aquaculture activity, so we were happy to do sub contracting work for SSE, at Longannet, Conckenzie and Ferrybridge, and one thing led to another. We were asked to do Greater Gabbard as a result.”

ZE1 Global – strength

in unity

Dougie Stevenson sees decommissioning as a major part of Malakoff’s future, but not in isolation.

“Decommisioning offers Shetland enormous possibilities,” he says, “but we decided that to offer prospective clients a full range of facilities and expertise, we needed to form a partnership with other companies.” As well as decommissioning work, Dougie says, ZE1 Global has the resources to tackle major engineering and fabrication contracts each component company might find too taxing.

So Malakoff, Lerwick Engineering and Fabrication (LEF) and Ocean Kinetics have combined to offer what they say is much more than the sum of its parts. Management supply chain experts Carisma RCT are in charge of operations.

“We have the capacity together to deliver a superior, round the clock service,” says Dougie, “and I think our working together shows how capable and willing Shetland is to handle major oil industry contracts – and renewable projects too. Shetland has tremendous potential when it comes to tidal, wave and wind power, and we want to play our part in that.”

ZE1’s key strengths, says Dougie, are down to location and the sheer capability of the Shetland infrastructure.

“Shetland based, we’re close to the action and can offer faster response times and a round the clock service. And there are over 180 engineering and fabrication specialists, extensive workshop and quayside facilities, backed by the relevant certifications and the latest equipment and techniques. Add to that the combined experience of four established companies across a range of marine, engineering and fabrication disciplines, and it’s a really powerful package.”


Fred Gibson

Shetland Composites

Shetland Composites is a story of how one man’s vision and imagination has grown into a small but rapidly expanding business, taking cutting-edge advantage of Shetland’s role in renewables.

The firm began trading 10 years ago and the majority of the work in the early years involved producing wind and wave devices primarily for universities and academic research institutions out of glass reinforced plastic. Over the years, the company has maintained this work and diversified its product range into new and more commercial markets. The company is now a leader in the research, development and manufacturing of wave and tidal prototype devices, fish hatchery tanks, navigation lights/buoys, and storage containers/waste solutions.

The team at Shetland Composites have always been highly innovative. In 2001, the team built a Pelamis wave power prototype, which has over the last ten years evolved from an idea to reality. Other work has included creating a carbon fibre car and developing renewable energy hot water storage systems.

Shetland Composites is in the process of moving to a new 540 sq m site within Lerwick’s Staney Hill Industrial Estate.

The new building is more than twice the size of the existing one, and will include space to allow the company to engage in more research and development. It is expected that three new jobs will be created which would bring the total workforce to eight.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s Account Manager Andrew White, said: “Shetland Composites are an ambitious business with plans to expand their work and take on more staff. They are undertaking innovative projects which would benefit from the new workshop, allowing a production line to set up for tanks, casings and turbine masts. It will also give them the capacity to bid for and deliver larger contracts in order to grow their company.”

Managing Director Fred Gibson said: “The new building will more than double our current capacity and will be more suited to high-end manufacturing This will enable us to work towards business improvement standards and quality accreditations that are much sought after in our industry as well as increasing our productivity.”


S hetland’s location means that it is perfectly positioned for a key role in decommissioning a range of facilities from the Northern sector of the North Sea and the Atlantic. This is

expected to be a 30-year, £50 billion industry.Shetland has the closest UK decommissioning facility to many of

the fields and has a 40-year track record of supporting the offshore industry. Lerwick Port Authority operates the port of Lerwick and has recently increased deep-water access and berthing within the port. Lerwick is situated to be at the forefront of decommissioning in the UK sector for the deepwater fields in the North Sea.

Peterson SBS, with its licensed decommissioning site at the Greenhead base, and room to expand, has already tackled the biggest single-lift decommissioning project ever brought ashore in the UK. The decommissioning of Total’s TCP2 module support frame (MSF) was a major component of the contract awarded to Peterson SBS and Veolia Environmental Services by Aker Solutions for the Frigg Cessation Project.

Weighing approximately 8,730 tonnes, the MSF was one of the largest single decommissioning lifts yet in the North Sea. The S600 transport barge was the largest yet to berth at Lerwick’s

The Decommissioning

Potential


Greenhead base – when trailered onshore the total weight crossing the quay including grillage and trailers was around 11,100 tonnes. Peterson SBS and Veolia Environmental Services are currently working on a five-year multi-field subsea disposal contract awarded by Hess Limited.!This project will bring 15,000 tonnes of sub-sea structures and pipeline infrastructure associated with the decommissioning obligation for the Ivanhoe and Rob Roy oil fields, plus the Fife, Flora, Fiona and Angus oil fields in the central North Sea.

In addition to the Greenhead decommissioning site, Lerwick Dales Voe is set to become a major Deep Water facility (subject to contract award). AF Decom Offshore, a Norwegian-headquartered company with an Aberdeen office, plans to operate a decommissioning yard following an exclusivity agreement with Lerwick Port Authority. The base will be modelled on AF Decom Offshore’s established base at Vats, Norway, the most advanced deep-water decommissioning centre in Europe. The Dales Voe Base has very deep-water approaches and direct access to the North Sea.

A major dredging project at Lerwick’s north harbour in 2008 deepened access channels for larger vessels, and created

additional land for future development.!Shetland’s capital, Lerwick, is the

main sea-gateway to Shetland. With two entrances, the sheltered, deep-water port is open to shipping in all weathers and operates 24 hours a day, handling over 5000 vessels per year. It’s crucial to the islands in many ways, notably in the provision of full roll-on/roll-off facilities for the nightly freight, livestock and passenger services to and from Aberdeen.!

The Port Authority owns all the quays, which are common-user, giving the flexibility for marine support.

The port also provides deep water (over 45 metres) inside port limits in both its north and south approaches, which is suitable for deballasting/lifts close to berths.

Lerwick

!Undoubtedly, Lerwick is poised to handle its share of decommissioning from both the North Sea and the Atlantic.!And overall, it is f lourishing. Latest figures, for January to March 2012 show that the number of offshore support vessels using Lerwick rose by 82 per cent over the previous year. Victor Sandison, Lerwick Port Authority’s Deputy Chief Executive, said: “Increasing oil-related activity in the first quarter again demonstrated the value of the investment in deep-water infrastructure, including the latest berth at Greenhead which was brought into use in February to support a major project.”


S hetland was always an ideal landfall for offshore development, and so it has proved as the reach for resources has extended

westwards. But Shetland’s geography has also offered enormous potential in terms of renewable energy. The commissioning of a full Wave and Tidal Resource Assessment from Dr Ross Halliday of Natural Power means that anyone interested is establishing a renewables operation in Shetland can access instantly the information needed. And that assessment is constantly being monitored and updated, as part of the process of compiling a full marine atlas of the Shetland Islands.

David Priest of Highlands and Islands Enterprise said:

“This is a really useful piece of work and fills in a missing gap of information available on the seas around Shetland, making it easier for developers to plan. It clearly demonstrates where the best wave and tidal energy is and how good resources are in and around Shetland waters.” It has certainly proved useful for the likes of Aegir Wave Power, a joint venture between Vattenfal, Europe’s fifth biggest generator of electricity and Edinburgh-based Pelamis, developer of the Pelamis wave energy converter.

Mapping the Potential for Renewables


W hen it comes to wind, the figures speak for themselves too. The Burradale windfarm, just outside Lerwick, which has been in

existence for 12 years, is the world’s most productive, with a peak output in 2005 of 18,351,719 units of electricity – a capacity load factor of 56.9 per cent. It has never had an annual load capacity of less than 50 per cent, calculated after all maintenance breakdowns and internal electrical losses were deducted.

Burradale is an indicator of just how successful the Viking Energy Project – a £685 million partnership involving the local Council, Scottish and Southern Energy, and the people behind the Burradale development – could be. This project, which now has full approval from the Scottish Government, will be one of Europe’s major windfarm developments, with a life of 25 years, and involving 103 145-metre, 3.6 megawatt turbines. Among other things, Viking’s developers say it will:

The go-ahead for Viking is not just confirmation of the islands’ potential but will mean the long-awaited interconnector between Shetland and the Scottish mainland will go ahead. The 600 megawatt subsea power cable should be in place by 2016 and truly releases the potential of Shetland as a renewable energy powerhouse.

Blowing in the Wind?


L erwick is not, of course, the only port in Shetland. The Sullom Voe Harbour is the biggest in the

isles, and there are many others such as Scalloway, a traditional fishing port ideally situated for serving the west of Shetland oil developments and just 10 minutes from Lerwick by road.!

Shetland is not just a single landmass. It consists of approximately 100 islands and has over 900 miles of coastline with several ports and many piers.

Shetland Islands Council, as Harbour Authority, is responsible for Sullom Voe. Despite being one of the largest oil ports in the world, Sullom Voe is one of the cleanest, with no discernible effect on the harbour’s abundant marine life. It’s famed for its otters.

In addition to Sullom Voe, Shetland Islands Council, as Harbour Authority,

has responsibility for the operation of a number of smaller ports and piers located around the islands, the largest being Scalloway.

The small ports and piers are used principally by small craft involved in fishing and the aquaculture industry, with Scalloway being a designated fishing port and the main fishing port on Shetland’s West coast. Cullivoe, Yell, which is also a designated fishing port, has recently upgraded its pier facilities and is widely used by the Scottish and Shetland white fish fleets being so close to the major fishing grounds.

The next island up from Yell is Unst, the two islands connected by a free roll-on/roll-off ferry. Unst is home to the famous PURE Project, which offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for small scale renewables projects ranging through wind, solar, biomass,

biogas and hydrogen. It has a brewery, and a mothballed but still usable airport designed and built to first RAF and then North Sea helicopter operational standards.

The islands’ main airports remain the council-owned Scatsta, next to Sullom Voe, Tingwall near Lerwick, which handles inter-island flights, and the main air gateway, Sumburgh, 25 miles south of Lerwick. But that journey does not take long. Shetland’s roads are among the finest in the country, with a hardly a pothole to be seen. That’s the power of wisely-invested, and wisely-spent oil income.

Surrounded by Water... and Air!


AEGIR – harnessing

the waves

It’s crystal clear that the waters around Shetland are busy, but we’ve been working on managing that traffic for a while now. Facilitated by the Shetland Renewable Energy Forum – which works to link up renewable energy developments in Shetland – and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Aegir have been working with local fishermen’s representatives and other marine environment stakeholders – both local and national – to ensure smooth passage remains in the face of new marine renewable energy developments. Shetland is probably unique in having a dedicated Fisheries, Aquaculture and Renewables Liaison group.

One of two, local tertiary educational institutions’ the NAFC Marine Centre, part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, is world renowned for expertise in marine spatial planning and modelling, and this is proving extremely valuable in fostering a co-operative approach to marine developments in Shetland.

Aegir Wave Power is a joint venture between Vattenfall, one of Europe’s leading energy companies, and Pelamis Wave Power, with the aim of developing and deploying wave farms off the Scottish coast.!This includes the deployment of the Pelamis wave power project off the southwest coast of Shetland.

“The Shetland wave farm development is right at the forefront of this new industry, which

has huge future potential, and it’s really exciting to be developing this opportunity off Shetland,” says Andrew Scott, Aegir’s Project Manager.

Aegir Wave Power’s immediate ambition is to develop and build a commercial wave farm off the southwest coast of Shetland, near St. Ninian’s Isle. The proposed farm will consist of up to 14 Pelamis machines with a combined rated power of 10MW. The machines will be arranged in rows to form an array or wave farm. The wave farm will be connected back to the Shetland mainland via a subsea cable link.

The farm will occupy roughly 2km2 with its exact location being determined on completion of survey work, resource measurements and consultations. The farm is likely to be built in stages with the first machines, planned to be commissioned in 2016 with some construction work potentially beginning in 2015. The timing is dependent on a number of things including planning consents for the project and the delivery of the planned HVDC connection between Shetland and the Scottish mainland.

In May 2011, Aegir Wave Power were successful in securing an agreement for lease from The Crown Estate, who own the seabed around the UK.

Being approximately 200 km north of the mainland of Scotland; the Shetland Islands are exposed the full force of the North Atlantic and its predominant weather patterns. As such the waters around the islands possess one of the best wave energy resources in the world, with average annual energy levels exceeding 50kW per metre of incident wave crests.

Renewable energy consultants, Natural Power, carried out a marine resource assessment of the Shetland Islands on behalf of the Shetland Islands Council in 2011. Their report, ‘Shetland Islands – Wave and Tidal Resource’ is available to read here.

A study for the Scottish Government in 2001 estimated that 45.7TWh of wave energy was extractable for the waters around Scotland. That’s more than Scotland’s current total electricity demand from an energy source which is renewable, and being domestic: is free of energy security issues.

Developing technologies, skills and capabilities to harness this vast renewable resource will generate substantial economic and social opportunities in its delivery, such as jobs and future export opportunities, but will also help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with electricity generation.

In recognition of this the Scottish Government have created a unique market mechanism for wave energy projects in Scotland to encourage investment to be made into this exciting sector and secure the long term benefits from the industry.

A crucial link required for the Shetland Project to benefit from the Scottish wave market mechanism is to be able to export the power it generates onto the electricity grid. Shetland’s planned HVDC transmission cable will provide the vital “route to market” for wave energy generated in Shetland to be exported back to the mainland.


T he SHEFA2 Interconnect Project intends to tap into the fibre optic cable running from Faroe to the Scottish mainland, to ensure that islanders

benefit from access to a “resilient, reliable and affordable backhaul“, which should be significantly faster than the current Microwave (wireless) link. This will also help to support the council’s Digital Shetland strategy, which aims to ensure that 80% of Shetland’s communities are connected to a fibre optic backbone by March 2016.

The SIC also wants 90% of the islands population to be within reach of a superfast broadband service (i.e. faster than 24Mbps) by the same date.

Connection to the Faroese cable is now established and one of the first examples of the technology at work has been the famous ‘puffin cam’, which allows a worldwide audience to view Shetland’s nesting puffins.

Connected and Communicating


S hetland is the best Scottish rural area you can live in. And that’s official.!

When it comes to health quality, life expectancy, education, employment and a lack of crime, Shetland tops the scale. Aberdeenshire took second place, with neighbouring Orkney third.

The latest Bank of Scotland rural areas quality of life survey found!that 93 per cent of Shetland residents reported themselves as in good or fair health. Shetlanders live longer too: People here live, on average, to 77.

The level of school qualifications is also above the national average and residents live in an area with one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Average house prices in the Shetlands are 4.2 times average gross annual local earnings, below the Scottish average of 4.7.!

Add to that the highest number of state of the art leisure centres per head of population in Europe, a clean environment and a close-knit, caring community that welcomes strangers. And as a place to come and live, it’s irresistible.

The Best Place to Live in Scotland?

Shetland’s long marine tradition, vast tidal and wind resources, and decades of experience in the North Sea oil industry makes it ideally placed to tackle both the new world of renewables and the servicing and decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations. It’s also one of the most welcoming, well-equipped, exciting and comfortable rural environments in the UK. As a place to live and raise a family, somewhere to work, somewhere to do business – it can’t be beaten. When it comes to energy – Shetland has it all.

Find out more at www.SHETLAND.org

ENERGY: SHETLAND HAS IT ALL. THIRTY YEARS’ CUTTING EDGE EXPERIENCE IN OIL AND GAS. IN SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST DEMANDING CONDITIONS. SOON TO BE THE UK’S RENEWABLE POWERHOUSE USING EUROPE’S BEST WIND, WAVE AND TIDAL RESOURCES. ALREADY HOME TO THE CONTINENT’S BIGGEST OIL TERMINAL. NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN GAS PRODUCTION AND OIL EXPLORATION. STATE-OF-THE-ART MARINE FACILITIES, CAPABLE OF HANDLING THE BIGGEST VESSELS. NEAREST UK DECOMMISSIONING SERVICES TO THE MAJOR NORTH SEA AND ATLANTIC FIELDS. BUT BEST OF ALL, A PLACE AND PEOPLE TRAINED, READY, WELCOMING AND WILLING TO WORK. WITH YOU.

power from the north

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