Environmental Technology

Green Scotland

Scotland has always been very green in color, but now they are a global leader in the “Green” energy movement. Scotland has a plan that will have renewable energy sources producing 100% of Scotland’s total energy need by 2020 and possibly 185% by 2030. These are not lofty goals or pipe dreams. Scotland is using all of its natural advantages to follow through with this plan. They are currently ahead of their projected schedule, in 2012 over 40% of Scotland’s energy was produced by a renewable energy source.

The first question asked when these types of claims are made is “how?”
Scotland has the full support of its government and its people, which is the first factor that makes this plan possible. When a whole country works together to achieve a goal it becomes very attainable. This is probably the factor missing in the push for renewable energy in the US. The second factor that makes this goal attainable is having a realistic and sensible plan. Scotland plans to reduce their demand of energy as well as increase renewable energy production.

They will reduce demand by installing smart meters, which will switch unnecessary power usage off during peak times, and postpone the usage until low usage. This will greatly reduce the stress put on the grid during peak usage. In addition, many new government policies are in place to incentivize demand reduction. Some estimates predict the demand will drop by 14%.

The increased production will come predominately from the new and expanding wind, wave, and tidal programs. Currently wind is the only one of these sectors that provides a substantial amount of renewable energy, but over the next 15 years Scotland has plans to harness the massive amounts of energy available in the movement of the oceans. Along with introducing wave and tidal they will expand onshore wind and offshore wind production. Another major sector they plan to expand is microgeneration, which is small scale private energy production, farmers with harnessing wind power, solar panels on homes, etc. Last but not least the already flourishing hydro program will continue to grow.

Graph of renewable energy production estimates (from "The Power of Scotland")
 http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/sites/files/possv6final.pdf

Hydro electric is one of Scotland’s main energy sources, with tall mountains, large inland lochs, and high rainfall, hydro power is viable, and highly productive. We Visited the Pitlochry dam and hydro power station to get a first hand look at renewable energy production. The site is not one of the biggest hydro sites in Scotland, but it is in a very lovely setting, making the visit both educational and pleasant. It was very cool to see green energy production in progress. First we walked across the dam, looking at the infrastructure of the site. You could peak into the housing area of the turbines and generator, and we saw the tops of the two generators at this location. There was also a retired turbine on display, which was a bit smaller than I expected. Another important aspect of this dam is the fish ladder, which allows fish to bypass the dam, lessening the environmental impact the dam has.

Top of Pitlochry dam (photo by author)

A view inside the power station (photo by author)

Retired Turbine (photo by author)

View of the dam from down stream (photo by author)

I think the steps Scotland is taking to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions are things the whole world needs to take as an example. I only hear about how more renewable energy can be produced, when part of the problem is the amount of energy we use in the first place. Sustainability is much more attainable when we are using less energy. I hope we see plans similar to Scotland’s being proposed and accepted in many countries in the years to come.

Trip to Pitlochry

New energy sources are something that people are always looking for, especially the ones that are environmental-friendly. They even have a proper name called sustainable energy. Nowadays, people tends to notice the importance of being “GREEN” because once the natural resources have been depleted, human may have nothing to use for most of the activities. Another disadvantage of using traditional fuels is that they pollute the environment in various ways, such as greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, air pollution..etc. Therefore, many countries dedicated money and time to discovery new ways to obtain energy sources.

Before attending to the study abroad program, I have already heard that Europe countries have been using many new methods to obtain energy. However, I have not seen them myself until today and I have been amazed!

View from the Dam

In the morning, my class gathered at the Dundee train station and boarded the train to travel to Pitlochry to see the hydroelectric dam. After arrived at Pitlochry, we walked to the dam which was not far away from the train station. As soon as we stood on the dam, a view that only one could see from the movie just suddenly appeared. I began to rush for taking out my phone because I had a feeling that the scene I saw was just an illusion and might be disappeared after a few seconds. Then, I took many photos from different angles and planned to send them to my parents to share that beautiful view.

The fish ladder

 I looked far away and saw the salmon ladder that professor Salvo mentioned. I was curious that whether or not that I could see fish from there. So, I headed towards the direction of the fish ladder with a friend. On the way, there were different boards that explained how the hydroelectric dam works for obtaining energy. When we arrived at the fish ladder, we were somewhat disappointed since we did not see any fish even though we knew that it was not the season for spawning. We even went to the observatory to see if we were fortunate enough to see salmon pass by or any kind of fish would be fine. Again, we were disappointed! Although we did not see the fish, the view at the dam was already surprising and awesome.

Boards about Dam and Power Station

When the time approached noon, we finished touring around the dam and started to feel hungry. Then, most of us went to the town centre and had our lunch. My friend and I walked around the centre after the mean and saw a few gifts shops and a tourist centre. Then, we started to wonder the reason that it had a tourist centre. Pitlochry did not seemed like a place that one would go for a vocation, but somehow we sensed that we might be wrong because they were different people from various places and also, the prices for meals were generally higher than in Dundee, the fourth largest city in Scotland. After ambled around the town centre, we went back to train station and on the way, we also stopped and adored the flowers along the road side. The short wonderful trip ended as we boarded the train that was going back Dundee!