Area Profile – Shetland

Shetland lies at the north-western frontier of the European Union, over 200 miles north of Aberdeen. It comprises more than 100 islands, 15 of which are inhabited, with a population of around 22,000.

The massive wind resource in Shetland has dictated that wind power is the most advanced renewable energy technology in use. But with environmental issues to overcome in many parts, other alternative energy sources are gaining a foothold too. Foremost of these are hydrogen fuel cells developed on Unst by PURE Hydrogen and tidal flow projects, with small scale community projects also experimenting with micro-hydro schemes and solar energy.

A few outside Lerwick, the Shetland capital, is the 3.68MW Burradale Windfarm, owned and operated by private firm, Shetland Aerogenerators Ltd. The excellent wind regime found in Shetland makes the Burradale windfarm the most productive, in terms of capacity factor, in the UK. The average capacity factor of the turbines since the windfarm was opened in the year 2000 is over 52%. This average was surpassed in 2005 with a recorded capacity factor of 57.9%. 

But the biggest wind farm operators in Shetland will soon be community-led projects. Viking Energy Ltd. is a community wind farm project with plans to install 300MW of capacity. Scottish and Southern Energy also have a proposal for a 250MW wind farm on Shetland. A memorandum of understanding was signed between Viking Energy Ltd. and Scottish and Southern Energy with the aim being to bring the two projects together in a joint venture. Wind monitoring is being recorded at three locations and the daily data collected can be viewed online.

A number of other smaller scale community wind projects are at the planning stage or currently operating.

Several tidal stream devices have been tested in Shetland waters, where the narrow sounds between the islands provide ideal conditions for practical testing, sheltered deep water with high tidal flows of up to 8 knots and excellent harbour facilities near by for support.

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