Photo by phault
It would appear that, when it comes to renewables, Scotland's local authorities are quite literally getting their act together!
I think it's fair to say that the renewable energy industry is still in it's infancy. Wave and tidal machines are either still on the drawing board or needing to be scaled up in order to trial them. Offshore wind has the technology but doesn't yet have the resources to build on such a huge scale.
There is an argument that only the market could provide the impetus to deliver large projects like these, that nothing will get done unless there's a bit of competition. There's another argument that an emerging sector like this needs to be nurtured and, perhaps, mollycoddled, until it is mature enough to stand on it's own two feet.
Taking a leaf out of that second book, eight of Scotland's local authorities have set up East Coast Renewables, an "alliance" one-stop shop that anyone entering the renewables sector can go to. They'll find that all the companies and suppliers in the industry throughout the east of Scotland are there, along with the strategic vision and collaboration that should help the industry through its growing pains.
It's nice to see the local authorities acting together for the good of the country for once, rather than competing and biting each other's hands off.
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