Visiting the Isle of Lewis this year, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Scotland Office, Ann McKechin went on record   that " We are embracing nuclear, renewables and clean fossil fuel technology. The Western Isles should be at the forefront of this revolution - playing a vital part in meeting Scotland's and the UK's energy needs." 

Sladar on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides is to be the location for a wave farm generating up to 4MW, enough to power around 1,500 local houses, a collaboration between npower Renewables and Wavegen and one of the first marine renewable energy projects to be approved in the UK. It came after the Lewis wind farm proposal was rejected in 2008.

The opening ceremony at Whitelee wind farm, outside Glasgow, run by the Spanish company Iberdrola Renovables through Scottish subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables is now claimed as the largest onshore wind farm in Europe, with 140 wind turbines having an official a generating capacity  of 322MW average, to be increased to 600MW average within a few years.

But notes one report  Government figures show that the average capacity utilisation factor (CF) is just 28% for onshore wind farms.  A Renewable Energy Foundation study showed that only a few Scottish wind farms attain the 28% of capacity, as turbines will not work if the wind is not strong enough, and if too strong, generators have to be locked down to avoid damage.

In House of Lords in May, Lord Reay claimed an idleness rate for turbines to be between 55 to 110 days a year, pointing out that "per delivered megawatt, the capital cost of wind is three to five times the cost of nuclear, ten times the cost of gas and 15 times the cost of coal".

Rupert Steele, regulation director at ScottishPower Renewables, also warns that Britain, aiming to install some 30GW  of wind turbines by 2020, needs to build an equivalent backup power generation capacity to cover periods when the turbines are idle.

"Thirty gigawatts of wind maybe requires 25 GW of backup," he said.

"The problem is that if you've got a high-pressured area, you may have quite a large area where there's no wind at all."

The most high-profile current controversy it appears involves the proposed Viking wind farm on Shetland, comprising 150 turbines over 12,800 hectares. Yet Viking Energy produced a worst-case scenario of 14.9 years to pay back the carbon dioxide emissions potentially produced by drying out peat bogs over the 25 years' operation.

Offshore wind variable
And it now appears that some Scottish offshore wind farms have the potential to produce 40% more electricity than  English equivalents, according to a study by Edinburgh-based Atmos Consulting, using US space agency NASA satellite data covering the Moray Firth and Firth of Forth zones in Scotland, and Hornsea, Yorkshire and Norfolk zones in England, all of which are up for tender by the Crown Estate in the "round three" awards this year.

Findings are based on NASA  satellite measurements of UK wind speed using a scatterometer device which analyses reflections on water surface through radio signals. Atmos then correlates this with data from meteorological masts that have been offshore for the past two to three years.

Atmos associate director John Sturman said he believed the findings would be seen as the most useful to date as previous North Sea measurements have been taken from oil rigs and ships and not from the actual zones.

The Nasa data covers a period of more than 20 years, far longer than any previous study. Sturman said this was likely to help potential developers make much more confident calculations about the power output of their sites. He stressed, however, that scientists regard 50 years as the minimum period to establish a compelling trend and that the Atmos data had to be considered with this in mind.

Atmos would not release wind speeds recorded within each zone, but said that Moray, the Forth and Norfolk had been found to respectively produce 42%, 25% and 10% more power each year than Hornsea. Given that Norfolk is further south than Hornsea, this challenges assumptions that wind speeds are greater further north.

The round-three Crown Estate awards cover development zones that are many kilometres away from shore, with the four analysed by Atmos are all about 60km out. There have been several different award phases for sites closer to the shore, which in Scotland saw 10 proposals get Crown Estate permission in February in areas as diverse as the Moray Firth, the Tay Estuary and Kintyre.

The  Sunday Herald has suggested that the UK offshore wind industry is becoming up to £400m more valuable every year, thanks to the fact that summer wind speeds have been rising substantially over the past 20 years.

But none of this answers what backup exists for wind power. The nuclear power wind down  may giving decommissioning skills, but the phase out  means nuclear is no backup option.  Any southern nuclear generation beyond the borders  will cost  dearly as back-up to wind power, especially as a pinchpoint system is being mooted.  Scotland's backup can hardly be CO2, still in its pilot phase or the being piloted wave and tide systems.

Scottish Universities and the SUPA group will be the only remaining nuclear expertise in the north, with the exception of the decommissioning talent around Dounreay, likely to drain away fast without new contracts.

Nuclear is fast becoming an overseas skill requiring geographic relocation. Even Universities have to draw on European neighbour  facilities at Jyfl, Finland, Leonardo labs, Italy, Cern at Isolde, and France at Ganil.

Still, the good news is that With SUPA funding  four academic appointments in Nuclear and Plasma Physics, one each in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley and Strathclyde are being made.

The deft Delft approach

Reactor Institute Delft, the nuclear research reactor at Delft University of Technology, has received an official  recognition of its designation as one of the world’s 13 Collaborating Centres of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The designation signifies the international role of TU Delft in the development and dissemination of knowledge on nuclear technology.

The Reactor Institute Delft, uses its reactor to research innovative materials for sustainable energy technology, for example for solar cells and energy storage. And nuclear radiation is used for research into medical diagnostics and therapy.

The Netherlands doesn't disdain wind power either. In 2007 36 wind turbines became operational, with a generating capacity of roughly 108MW,  a $272m  project is jointly owned by Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch utility Nuon, with support of direct governmental aid. Its Q7 project has a 120MW capacity and  a further 65 offshore wind turbine sites have currently been mapped out towards meeting its goal of 9% electricity generated from renewable source. by 2010.

Canada's win-win aproach
“Investing in clean-energy research in Canadian universities is a win-win,” says Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, who made the University researching funding of almost $6m in grants of three years for the 23 Generation IV projects at an event to celebrating  50 years  of the McMaster University nuclear reactor. “By funding these university programs, we are training our future leaders in world-class research facilities, encouraging job creation and stimulating our economy.”

And its wind generation map will push past the 3,000MW caapcity this year.