Showdown! Hydrocarbons versus Renewables!
Hydrocarbons vs Renewables …
All ten of us – Cape Farewell’s crew – got to Shetland using fossil fuels: by plane, train, boat and car. Modern life runs on oil. Hydrocarbons 10, Renewables 0
Our boat – the lovely 120 yr old Swan – was once a sail-powered herring boat, able to catch several ton of herring with nothing but drift nets and manual labour. Those original sailors had no engines, and the skill required to maneuver the Swan in and out of harbor spins my head (anyone romanticizing days gone by should think hard about where their food comes from). A retrofitted diesel engine eases the Swan’s way today. Hydrocarbon 11, Renewables 0
Today’s modern pelagic trawlers – modern variants of the Swan – are massive affairs that catch a thousand ton of herring a day: they’re all buttons, radar, engines and motors. Hydrocarbons 12, Renewables 0
The Swan hit some lovely winds over the last two days. With three, or sometimes all four sails up, we hit cruising speeds over seven knots each day. Diesel cruising speed was four knots. At last! The powerful winds that sweep this island gave us an edge and we beat fossil fuel it’s own game! Hydrocarbon 12, Renewables 2
As we move out of the carbon age to a world powered by low-carbon energy, we face challenges even greater than those faced by the Swan’s crew a hundred years ago. We must somehow preserve the comforts and convenience of modern life, yet do without the muscle of oil, coal and natural gas – and make that change in the face of loud skeptics and entrenched interests. Building a low-carbon economy fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate disruption is the biggest challenge humans have ever faced.
But we’re up for it – renewables can compete!
As we sailed out of Lerwick this morning, in the background were the five wind turbines that provide 20% of Shetland’s power. Any more and the system gets unstable. An electric cable to the mainland would help – at a price tag of $100 million. For less (maybe $70 million) Shetland could put up a couple dozen more turbines and feed their power to an Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage system (UWCAES) for use when the wind isn’t blowing enough. Around here, that’s not often.
If Shetland moved to wind and air, their 20,000 residents would be off carbon-based electricity … Hydrocarbons 12, Renewables 20,002!
… but filling those trawlers’ tanks won’t be so easy …
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