MSP calls for urgent review into island interconnectors

Highlands and Islands MSP Mike MacKenzie has written to new energy secretary, Amber Rudd, asking her to urgently review the case for island interconnectors for Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

He said: “Renewable energy offers huge socio-economic advantages for our island communities as indicated in the jointly commissioned Scottish Islands Renewables project report published two years ago.”

According to Mr MacKenzie, the report indicated that there was the potential to create 3,500 new jobs on the Western Isles, 2,900 in Shetland, and 4,500 on Orkney by 2030.

“We are ten years ahead of the rest of the world in wave and tidal power research and many devices are reaching commercialisation,” he continued.

“This lead is now urgently threatened by the lack of interconnectors.