Orkney - Island of the Future | Fully Charged
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as an example of Orkney's grid innovation and role as a test site for renewable tech.
What it is
Fully Charged host Robert Llewellyn visits Orkney, where wind, tidal, wave and solar generation plus community energy schemes power the islands. It presents the archipelago as a model for future energy systems.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2016 to 2020.
What Hacker News said
Cites ZeroGravitas · 2016-11 · on “Tesla runs an entire island on solar power”
The island of Orkney is also doing similar, and is used as some kind of test site for the tech I think: [this video] It has wind power, sea water sourced heat pumps, a little bit of solar, a test rig for underwater wave power, batteries that are used to relieve the peaks on energy transmission to the mainland and projects to increase electric car uptake to soak up excess energy production.
Cites NeedMoreTea · 2019-05 · on “Wind provided 37 per cent of Ireland’s electricity in Q1 2019”
There's a Fully Charged episode on Youtube that looked into this. Hammer's Hill Wind Farm on Orkney paid off their installation and construction CO2 debt in the first 45 days of operation. Despite there being 500 tons of concrete and steel in each base. [this video]
Cites alex_duf · 2020-09 · on “Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years”
I've heard about Orkney quite a lot, I think it must simply be an innovation hub. That I can think off the top of my head: - Orbital marine, making tidal turbine [LINK] - Their grid [this video] - Their Hydrogen facilities, using extra renewable [LINK]