‘Disconnect’ between energy projects and isles fuel poverty, MP says

THERE is “a disconnect” between the amount of energy being generated in Shetland and the fuel poverty being felt by locals. 

That is according to Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael, who made the remarks in parliament during a debate on the community benefits from renewable energy projects.

The debate was led by his fellow Liberal Democrat MP Angus MacDonald on Tuesday afternoon.

Carmichael said the best way to boost local support for energy projects, like the Viking Energy wind farm, was for the people who host them to get more out of them.

He said this could be in the form of direct payments or access to quality jobs. Shetland and Orkney “have the highest level of fuel poverty of any community in the country”, he told his fellow MPs.

“The truth is that the further north we go, the more we are likely to find people enduring poor housing standards with long, dark, cold winters,” Carmichael said.

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“That has an impact and it is felt most acutely in Orkney and Shetland.

“The second thing I want people to understand is that when we talk about needing to find a template for making these things work, in Orkney and Shetland we have already done that.

“We have done it since the mid-1970s on our relationship to our oil and gas industry, which we have hosted.

“The reason there is such support for the oil and gas industry in Orkney and Shetland is that for the last few decades it has been a tremendous source of community benefit for us.”

Carmichael said the Sullom Voe oil terminal was proof that people would be “much more accepting” of major energy projects if communities could see the benefit of them.

However, he said there was “a disconnect” when companies such as SSEN were being paid £2m in constraint payments not to generate any electricity.

According to the Renewable Energy Foundations, constraints payments for the Viking wind farm were £2.5 million in August and almost £1.4 million for September.