I have just joined the Energy and Low Carbon team as Energy Co-ordinator at Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) on a one year graduate placement as part of HIE’s graduate training programme. This is a new position which has been created within the Energy and Low Carbon team based in Cowan House in Inverness, and is being sponsored both by The Crown Estate and HIE.
In my position I will have responsibility for supporting the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Leadership Forum. Stakeholders include the Scottish Government, The Crown Estate, Highland Council, Orkney Islands Council, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Scottish Renewables, National Grid, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Ltd (SHETL), Scottish Enterprise, and Marine Scotland.
My job will also involve general PR and marketing for the energy team and the wider Highlands and Islands energy sector. This will include promotion of the new Marine Energy Park , events management, and development of the HI-energy website and social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube).
I graduated in 2011 from the University of Glasgow with a degree in economics and studied renewable energy in Scotland, as well as environmental and natural resource economics.
I am delighted to have secured a job that will allow me to build upon my university studies. I am originally from Gairloch in the north west of Scotland, so I am really pleased to be based within the Highlands and Islands, where so much renewable energy activity is already under way. I am looking forward to getting to know and hopefully visit the various energy related sites and projects that HIE is involved with in the Highlands and Islands and I am also hoping to visit as many of HIE’s area offices as possible too. I will be writing a monthly blog entry for the HI-energy blog to give an update on my activities, and by my next blog in a month’s time I hope to have visited sites in Orkney including EMEC and also to have been to Edinburgh to meet with some of the Energy and Infrastructure team at The Crown Estate who are involved with the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters leasing area.
I would be happy to hear from any of you already working in the industry - in terms of hints and tips, and also to hear any of your news that we can include on the HI-energy website and in our other promotional activities. Feel free to email me at: [email protected]