Sub-sea Power Cable for the Western Isles

29 May, 2009 - 08:44 — admin

Sub-sea Power Cable for the Western Isles

A new study has been commissioned to evaluate the viability of a sub-sea cable linking the Western Isles to Ireland and north England. This proposal could open huge opportunities for the Southern Isles to take advantage of developing marine renewable technologies and is a significant improvement on all prior proposals, which have offered no significant prospect for development out with Lewis.

At present the electrical grid for the Uists and Barra connects to the mainland via Skye and is limited to 14MW. The scale of this connection is such that there is little or no prospect of medium or large scale development of the renewables industry in the Uists and Barra and creates a massive barrier to the development of a future marine renewables industry, despite the presence of the best wind and wave resource in Europe.

This study could open the doors to further development of community projects and provide new opportunities for larger scaled projects both on the islands and in the surrounding seas.