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Saturday 2 August 2025
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Letters / A hollow victory?

At last we know what Sustainable Shetland and its members are really against – not just Viking but any commercial renewable energy scheme in the islands.

They want to stop Shetland having a cable linking us to the National Grid on the mainland, without which we cannot develop a new renewable energy industry.

What does Sustainable Shetland want instead? Only “renewables for Shetland alone”. That means a few small community schemes and windmills until our terribly restricted local electricity grid can take no more.

Sustainable Shetland only wants to use an insignificant amount of the potential renewable energy in and around the islands and stop anyone using the rest.

With a cable Shetland will get its electricity from our local renewable energy and export the rest to help reduce greenhouse gases, bring tens of millions of pounds into the islands for the charitable trust and local communities, new jobs and a more secure future for the islands.

But if Sustainable Shetland and its members get their way the wind will blow, the tide ebb and flow and the waves crash onto the shore and no-one will use it or benefit from it – not even ourselves.

What sort of victory would that be?

Chris Bunyan
Bressay

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