stuartydesigner

Article updates, May 2026 notes regarding the hydrogen road concept publicised 2013

Not enough realistic local R&D is happening to increase volume of hydrogen, the single tidal wheel nr Cullivoe was dedicated to running the fish freezer plant , though Yell sound is largely part of the Sullom Voe harbour precincts, & Bluemull just over the other side of Yell. Then just south of Sumburgh head the tidal race has twice daily rotating tidal compass vectors up to 7 knots, The channel between Bigga and Yell tidal reverses nearly N / S twice daily up to 6 knots , more or less the same for Bluemull Sound according to Admiral Days tidal rate charts .

When Alec Salmond first minister at that time 13 years ago was pictured at the hydrogen fuel pumps. Re-filling a Japanese manufactured car powered by the fuel cell. I.e. reverse hydrolysis to electric power, and at the same exclusive show small electric cars and a truck with lithium ion iron batteries which can be recharged over night. Probably those and off peak storage heating should make use of renewable energy when it is at its most productive i.e. both land based and marine variants dependant on tidal flow rates.. The technology is still being promoted by the northern Euro/Scandinavian ‘hydrogen road’ project which intends to make a supply of the gas produced by hydro, wind and tidal means available on main routes between those countries. As long as there is an advantageous short distance for distribution.

That is another factor in efficiency, much of the local problem of fuel prices is due to that long distance loop down to the mainland and back up here. There was an lpg motor fuel tank at Brae
co op is gone apparently ironic considering how much of it there is up the road at Sullom Voe gas terminal . Apparently lpg was going to be piped to a new power station out by Gremista, then now it is being downgraded which would have improved efficiency and reduce soot emissions. though I has very little sulphur Instead you have the giant aero generators upon the lang Kames, connected by cable to the mainland a fantastic 105 monsters dwarfing the peat worked scarred N/S Kames. Overlooking Petta water, Sandwater, Nesting, Vidlin and Wiesdale valley.

Our local contribution to the hydrogen road concept would be the much publicised Pure project on Unst. Now 13 years later it is about the projected ex Scatsa airstrip site appropriately next to Sullom Voe gas terminal The cable to th mainland has been operational since some time in 2024 ,, , wheras such local micro developments would be naturals for hydrogen hydrolysis tanks. . The local paper was complaining then in anticipation of the inversely stacked valuation or taxation related to distance. That must have been conceived in an attempt at some control of generating efficiency loss by distance. Which didn’t make sense for Orkney and the Shetland isles any way. Yet just as the separating of gases at Sullom Voe terminal then made a local pipeline to Gremista possible, so also does the proximity of the tidal Yell and Bluemull sounds, to gas storage, transporting and mixing technology . Apparently planned for Scatsta the former Sullom Voe air strip

Locally charged lithium ion batteries could be powered by localised renewable energy & localised distance to Scatsta. the longer distance distribution of fuel cell gases in accordance with the hydrogen road concept. Another example of a heap of news publicity going to a good idea but very minimal R&D investment was again reported by the local paper i.e. the concept of combining hydrogen and flue gases and steam catalytically at power station chimneys.

Is all the money still going to a single developer monopoly. Are those processes blocked by the rarity and expense of catalysts, are those technologies being monopolised by gold digging patent proprietary limitations or is it the as yet relative rarity of any complete set up?

The business of how long those batteries last, they are expensive to replace, my new strimmer re chargeable battery 300 times or two years, a laptop 5 years? Those wee imported electric vehicles and bikes have much better lifetimes at least 8-10 years so there are better quality LI ion batteries Making it cheaper to recharge them is a bit more complex than smart meters in you home which aren’t really smart they pay no attention to weather forecasting and excess power generation off offloading The battery equivalent would need to allow time, to match our charge rate to the variable renewable energy output of wind and tidal power.

2026 the district nurses here have li ion rechargeable battery cars now. And & NC DC electric van. The general forms of renewable energy production have been known for decades or longer, if it comes down to it they were there before Henry Ford. You can hire an electric bike at the Hillswick . shop it needs to be booked on NCDC, site