Back at my desk today after holiday. Five reflections on energy and climate in the Highlands/Islands of Scotland.

#energy #netzero #Scotland

THREAD ALERT 1/

1. Heating challenge massive - oil & elec heating pervasive. Often saw oil trucks doing deliveries.

Q of whether locals *can* afford massive retrofit costs

AND

If 2nd home owners/holiday lets *willing* to pay big upfront costs.

Heating costs also v high due to climate. 2/

2. Transport - the car is integral to life across the H&I of Scotland. Not sure I saw a single local bus during 2 1/2 weeks.

Cycling mostly from cycle tourers. Distances, landscape & weather not conducive to cycling year round.

EV charging (below) & low-C ferries a priority. 3/

3. Community energy. Obvs a sense of community up there we lack in central belt.

BUT this is punctuated by 2nd home owners & holiday lets. You need a critical mass of custom, money & land to make projects happen. Difficult when half your neighbours are summer migrants. 4/

4. Onshore wind. Whilst I saw some evidence of this on Skye, much of the West coast and central highlands seemed devoid of onshore wind. Map below supports that (albeit from 2018).

Big missed opportunity IMHO. 5/

https://www.mygridgb.co.uk/map/ 

5. Afforestation. Some excellent work being done across #Scotland on this front but there remain vast swathes on featureless moorland. I know @guyshrubsole has covered this but Scotland H&I seem an obvious place to start:

- local jobs
- improved biodiversity
- more tourism 6/

Summary - some major net-zero challenges face Scotland's H&I, none more so than transport and heat. Huge potential for climate action but work of @HIEScotland @hienergyscot critical to highlighting where challenges and solutions are unique to these extremely special regions.