Professor: It’s Scotland. It’s long winters. It’s not easy
Living off grid in complete self-sufficiency can be easier in theory than practice, according to experts.
Dave Reay, executive director for the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation and professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh, speaks from experience as he is trying to build his own off-grid home in Kintyre, where, because it is in an area of natural beauty, he cannot erect a wind turbine.
Professor Reay, 47, told The Sunday Post: “There is a lot of interest in off-grid living, especially through programmes like Grand Designs. And renewable technologies like solar power are cheaper and more accessible.
“People have really identified that, with the climate emergency, this is a way they can play their part; in terms of having zero emissions. There is a groundswell of people wanting those experiences. But to go the whole hog is a brave thing to do.
“In Scotland our winters are pretty long and unless you have a reliable source of energy – like a small hydroelectric system fed by a river or burn – how do you get the energy to sustain you if there is no sun and no wind?”
He said being entirely off grid could mean weeks without power in winter. In summer, any excess zero energy created by renewables cannot go back into the grid for others to use without a grid connection – a waste, given Scotland’s target of zero emissions by 2045.
But there has been an explosion in the number of people living the off-grid dream part-time. The professor said: “Where there is an increase in this type of lifestyle is in the hutting movement; people being off grid for part of the year.
“A change in legislation has allowed people to build and occupy huts more easily across Scotland as long as they are not year round homes. It fulfils not only an environmental need, but also a personal one, in terms of well-being and connecting with our
amazing environment.”