Shetland Rural Energy Hub

This project, a collaboration between Shetland Islands Council (SIC), Aquatera and Community Energy Scotland (CES), will address the non-technical systemic barriers to implementing rural energy hubs in Shetland. All organisations are partners in the Island Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ), a new 10-year programme that begins summer 2023\. ICNZ creates a pan-island innovation centre that will support Shetland, Orkney and the Outer Hebrides to become lighthouse communities for energy transition, trialing and accelerating solutions to decarbonisation that have replicability and application worldwide.

Energy hubs that incorporate electric vehicle (EV) charge points, on-site community renewable energy generation and storage, fleet vehicles, information, training and recycling facilities provide an opportunity to co-ordinate decarbonisation efforts within a whole systems approach. However, these hubs are difficult to implement in areas such as Shetland due to low population density, remote settlements, grid constraints and lack of skills capacity.

The study will utilise previous and ongoing SIC work to determine achievable pathways for decarbonising key sectors and reaching net zero through an integrated energy hub. It seeks to address the following barriers which we have come across so far: regulation, grid capacity, resource (skills/capacity), behavioural change and lack of data.

The feasibility study will be split into seven stages:

\*Literature review: review previous work by SIC and other agencies within Shetland relevant for rural energy hub creation

\*Consultation: obtain ideas, options and community buy in to the overall concept

\*Long-list of options: consider products and services for inclusion within the hub along with their advantages and challenges

\*Short-listing: workshop with SIC team and relevant stakeholders to distil the longer list into short list of options

\*Site identification: identify an appropriate site for an initial hub, reviewing what a network of hubs could achieve and where would they be sited

\*Detailed option analysis: fully develop short-listed options to understand how barriers or challenges can be mitigated

\*Concept report: highlight findings of the study as well as analysis of a preferred site and options for inclusion in a rural energy hub


Overall, this work will unlock the non-technical barriers across transport, energy use, reuse, recycling and waste, business and industry, and buildings, which are all considered holistically within an integrated energy hub, enabling a clearer path to implementation within Shetland and other rural communities. Solutions and data achieved will be able to be rolled out across ICNZ and rural communities nationally.