Love match burns bright as islanders get 24-hour power
● Project brings round-the-clock supply to Fair Isle
Residents of the UK’S most remote inhabited island are celebrating getting 24-hour mains electricity for the first time – and for one of them the project has led to a spark of another kind.
One of the construction workers on the project has decided to stay on Fair Isle permanently after falling for Marie Bruhat, who moved to the location from France in February last year.
She said she hoped the dawn of round-the-clock electricity on the island, which has only 55 residents, would not “kill the romance” by putting an end to the use of candlelight.
The power supply on Fair Isle – a three-mile long island lying halfway between Orkney and Shetland – has previously been cut off between 11:30pm and 7:30am each day.
But from today it will start receiving round-the-clock, renewable electricity from three wind turbines, an array of solar panels and battery storage following the completion of the £3.5 million project.
The scheme was led by Fair Isle Electricity Company and has been supported by funding from the Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It is hoped the arrival of a reliable 24-hour power supply will attract more people to visit, live and set up businesses on the island, which is famous for its abundant bird life and its knitwear.
For Ms Bruhat, who initially came to the island for an internship with knitwear designer Mati Ventrillon and decided to move permanently, the energy project brought another benefit.
Since June she has been dating Thomas Fisher, one of the scheme’s Scottish construction workers, who has now decided to stay on the island for good along with one of his colleagues. “There was a bit of a question mark about wheth- er I was going to find a partner here, but I thought I had more chance to find someone here that would want to stay,” she said. “I was just waiting to meet someone.”
The 25-year-old said she liked living on the island due to its simplicity, with no need for a car or public transport and only one shop that sells “only one or two brands of anything”.
Welcoming the new electricity system, she said most of the island’s residents had relied on environmentally unfriendly generators and battery power during the night.
“The main difference is going to be being able to program your heating system,” she said.