Monsta Mo Mini
13th February 2004, 06:19 PM
From today's Scotsman
Sun City - right on the banks of the Tay
JAMES REYNOLDS
ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT
MENTION of plans to roll out solar-power projects across Scotland is likely to elicit a look of puzzled bemusement from many inhabitants. Our erratic climate, with abundant precipitation and overcast, cold days does not prompt notions of efficient and easy capture of the sun’s limitless energy.
But a new project promises to radically change misconceptions about the suitability of solar power north of the Border.
Launched in September last year, the Dundee Sun City programme is a collaborative scheme which aims to draw on MET office records confirming that Dundee is Scotland’s sunniest city. With 1,482 annual sunshine hours, Dundee has over 100 hours more sunshine than its nearest rival, Aberdeen.
Add to that the fact that it is located on the north shore of the Tay Estuary, meaning that the large majority of the buildings face south, together with massive improvements in solar technology, and it soon becomes apparent that the city is ideally placed to capitalise on this resource.
Presently, Scotland has a total energy demand of approximately 160 terawatt hours a year (TWh/y) which is met from nuclear power (45 per cent), natural gas (30 per cent), coal and gas (15 per cent) and renewable sources - predominantly large-scale hydro schemes (10 per cent).
The Scottish Executive has set a target of generating 40 per cent of Scotland’s electricity from renewable resources by 2020, achievable mainly through the development of on and offshore wind farms.
However, the target only applies to the generation of electricity from renewable resources. As such, it fails to recognise the importance of using renewable energy to generate heat directly for space and water heating, which accounts for approximately 70 per cent of all domestic energy use in the UK.
In this regard, solar energy is eminently useful for space and water heating, particularly in Scotland.
But although other European cities have been quick to catch on to a technology that has now had 25 years of refinements and improvements to its efficiency, the general inertia of Scotland’s attitude to solar water-heating has left us in the shade.
With the publication of the Executive’s Solar Manifesto, which sets out the renewable energy strategy for the coming decades, Dundee could very soon become the "most sustainable" city in Scotland, perhaps even the UK - maximising the environmental, social and economic resources for its people.
Elaine Morrison is one of the leading architects of the Sun City campaign. Based in Dundee, for 17 years she has worked for the Save Cash and Reduce Fuel (SCARF) project, an energy-efficiency and fuel-poverty organisation established in 1985, and has now established close links with the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to take the Sun City project forward.
She said: "Solar resources are measured in the number of kilowatt hours per metre squared, or energy that falls on that metre squared over the course of a year. Dundee has more than 1,000 kilowatt hours per metre squared per year, which is largely similar to London. If you compare that on a global scale, it is about two thirds that of Tokyo and just about half of Riyadh, which has the best solar resource of all cities globally. Dundee is comparable in terms of solar resources to the south of England, which dispels some of the popular misconceptions associated with Scotland."
If Sun City is successful, Ms Morrison believes it will address fundamental aspects of urban sustainability, and ultimately improve quality of life: reduced carbon emissions will lead to a cleaner Dundee and help sustain the built environment; increased emphasis on solar energy will create sustainable employment opportunities leading to a stronger local economy; solar water-heating could also address fuel poverty, leading to a healthier population and better social inclusion.
But a fundamental part of making this grand plan work will have to focus on changing attitudes
Sun City - right on the banks of the Tay
JAMES REYNOLDS
ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT
MENTION of plans to roll out solar-power projects across Scotland is likely to elicit a look of puzzled bemusement from many inhabitants. Our erratic climate, with abundant precipitation and overcast, cold days does not prompt notions of efficient and easy capture of the sun’s limitless energy.
But a new project promises to radically change misconceptions about the suitability of solar power north of the Border.
Launched in September last year, the Dundee Sun City programme is a collaborative scheme which aims to draw on MET office records confirming that Dundee is Scotland’s sunniest city. With 1,482 annual sunshine hours, Dundee has over 100 hours more sunshine than its nearest rival, Aberdeen.
Add to that the fact that it is located on the north shore of the Tay Estuary, meaning that the large majority of the buildings face south, together with massive improvements in solar technology, and it soon becomes apparent that the city is ideally placed to capitalise on this resource.
Presently, Scotland has a total energy demand of approximately 160 terawatt hours a year (TWh/y) which is met from nuclear power (45 per cent), natural gas (30 per cent), coal and gas (15 per cent) and renewable sources - predominantly large-scale hydro schemes (10 per cent).
The Scottish Executive has set a target of generating 40 per cent of Scotland’s electricity from renewable resources by 2020, achievable mainly through the development of on and offshore wind farms.
However, the target only applies to the generation of electricity from renewable resources. As such, it fails to recognise the importance of using renewable energy to generate heat directly for space and water heating, which accounts for approximately 70 per cent of all domestic energy use in the UK.
In this regard, solar energy is eminently useful for space and water heating, particularly in Scotland.
But although other European cities have been quick to catch on to a technology that has now had 25 years of refinements and improvements to its efficiency, the general inertia of Scotland’s attitude to solar water-heating has left us in the shade.
With the publication of the Executive’s Solar Manifesto, which sets out the renewable energy strategy for the coming decades, Dundee could very soon become the "most sustainable" city in Scotland, perhaps even the UK - maximising the environmental, social and economic resources for its people.
Elaine Morrison is one of the leading architects of the Sun City campaign. Based in Dundee, for 17 years she has worked for the Save Cash and Reduce Fuel (SCARF) project, an energy-efficiency and fuel-poverty organisation established in 1985, and has now established close links with the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to take the Sun City project forward.
She said: "Solar resources are measured in the number of kilowatt hours per metre squared, or energy that falls on that metre squared over the course of a year. Dundee has more than 1,000 kilowatt hours per metre squared per year, which is largely similar to London. If you compare that on a global scale, it is about two thirds that of Tokyo and just about half of Riyadh, which has the best solar resource of all cities globally. Dundee is comparable in terms of solar resources to the south of England, which dispels some of the popular misconceptions associated with Scotland."
If Sun City is successful, Ms Morrison believes it will address fundamental aspects of urban sustainability, and ultimately improve quality of life: reduced carbon emissions will lead to a cleaner Dundee and help sustain the built environment; increased emphasis on solar energy will create sustainable employment opportunities leading to a stronger local economy; solar water-heating could also address fuel poverty, leading to a healthier population and better social inclusion.
But a fundamental part of making this grand plan work will have to focus on changing attitudes