ESC 1 - What is energy security
Media Isle of Man had the honour of being part of Energy Sustainability Centre's recent 'Roundtable' session, organised by MMC and hosted by Capital International Group.
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00:00Thank you everybody for joining us today. I'm really excited for this panel, I'm looking forward to it, I'll be reading it in advance.
00:05So I think it will be really handy if we can go around the room to start with the camera purposes and introduce ourselves.
00:11I'll start with Leon Jones, I'm the editor at Media Allemande.
00:15Sam Jones, MD Media Allemande, not a couple.
00:20Rob, I'm the chair of the MD Sustainability Centre.
00:24Craig Alston-Croft, managing director at MC.
00:27John Galloway, development director at Orsted.
00:30Adrian Cohen, retired senior net officer, now working as a director at ESC.
00:36Mark Cady, chief operating officer at Zurich International.
00:41Anthony Long, I'm chairman of Capital International Group and welcome everybody.
00:47Lee Morris, CEO, Bankers Wildlife Trust.
00:51Thank you very much for hosting us today.
00:56So we know the format, we've got six broad topics.
01:02So I'd like to start off with something that has come to the forefront over the last three years, which is energy security.
01:11We've seen how global issues can affect energy security and I think more people are thinking about it.
01:18So I'd like to kick off with Ralf, if you could give us an explanation of what is energy security by your definition and how important is it for the Allemande?
01:29Thank you very much. I think security is where we can actually grow our own energy.
01:35I think the Allemande is fortunate that it's got so many natural resources.
01:38This was pointed out to me by Professor James Curran in about 2019.
01:43It really took him to actually look at the natural resources we've got and actually clearly put it down in the impact report, which was presented to Coleman in 2019.
01:53And that really showed that we have abundance of natural resources here on the Allemande.
01:57So to generate our own energy here on the island and then figure out a way of actually storing it so we can store that energy that's been harnessed from the wind as well as from the solar.
02:07We've got quite good hours of sunlight here on the island.
02:10So we can actually generate that and then store it in a way that we can then use that for our own needs going forward.
02:16That would be absolutely fantastic future green energy and that would be an attractive place for people to come and live and work on the island.
02:24And if I could just push you a bit further on that, what are the opportunities, uniques there on the Allemande?
02:29I know we've just touched on it, but is there anything, is there a warm thing, is there a combination of things?
02:33Yeah, it is wind speed actually because we're in the middle of the Irish Sea.
02:36The power that's harnessed in the wind actually then comes across the Allemande and it's not then weakened by going across land.
02:46So you really do have that powerful wind and we can then harness that into renewable energy.
02:51So on, let's segue to the subject of wind.
02:54John, you played a role in some significant renewable energy projects.
03:00You played a role with Orrsted. You've seen the intensification, you've seen what impact they can have on communities and people.
03:07In a sense, what would it mean for the Allemande to be able to harness that energy?
03:12Yeah, I mean it builds on the security point.
03:15I think the reality of acknowledging what your own natural resources are is the critical thing.
03:22The Allemande's coming to effectively the end of the first phase of electricity generation of its own in the sense of the existing assets.
03:30So you have the gas power station. We still have the old diesel stock power stations over in Peel.
03:35And the reality is those are going to come to the end of their life whether we like it or not.
03:40There has to be a next step in order for the Allemande to be energy secure.
03:44And that decision now comes at a time when the rest of the world is on a transformation.
03:50Both in offshore wind, what we do around the world and what we're proposing with the Mervannan project
03:56is to take a long-term view for the next 35 years which is a lifetime of a wind farm
04:02and harness that for that kind of time.
04:05Bringing power to the island will create that security and energy independence.
04:09But obviously in our case an opportunity for exporting it to the UK and to power well over a million homes in the UK equivalent.
04:18Bringing the revenue and the benefit through the agreement we have with the Allemande government.
04:23So that's the kind of basic on the energy security.
04:26The general impression that you get no matter where you go around the UK or around Ireland or around the world
04:33when it comes to what these types of projects do is that they transform communities for the future industries that are coming.
04:41So whether it's through the supply chain or whether it's through direct jobs with turbine technicians and commercial jobs and roles,
04:47environmental experts, there are people now working in this as a global industry as if it is a global industrial revolution.
04:55And the chance that the Allemande's got because it's got to make this decision now anyway on its future pathway,
05:00it can seize all the opportunities from around the world, bring them here and potentially be a very good net exporter of green energy.
05:08If I can ask you about the transformation and transition, we know that countries across the world are trying to get to grips with their own specific energy challenges.
05:20In your opinion, where do you think the Allemande ranks in terms of the progress it's made and how far it needs to go in order to serve?
05:28How far is it along the transition journey probably I'd ask?
05:33It's all things are relative. So you could say compared to other nations in northern Europe on certain aspects it's behind,
05:41where some of those countries have already leaned into doing renewable energy or offshore or solar.
05:48But then I look back to when the marine plan was established for offshore wind and when we got our agreement for lease from the government
05:56and the discussions there was at the time then about other marine renewables, that was back in 2014.
06:01So you could say that the Allemande doesn't get enough credit for being ahead at the time back then in planning ahead for what was coming,
06:09but we've kind of lost that kickstart over the last decade and perhaps we're playing a bit more of a catch up now.
06:15But the opportunity is there because the costs have come down massively on a lot of these industrial scale projects,
06:20so that benefit can be seized to do it well.
06:22Is that to do with the phasing of our energy production or is that for other reasons?
06:27Because my question is, we've got all this natural resource, why aren't we using it?
06:31And I don't really understand the answer to that.
06:35But you point out that our existing facilities are all coming to end of life
06:41and maybe it wasn't appropriate to build something 10 years ago whereas it is now.
06:45Is that right or is it more complicated than that?
06:48It's more, that is what puts it into view.
06:51I think two things have happened in the Isle of Man over the last few years only.
06:56The realisation that those assets are coming to the end of life and something has to give anyway,
07:00whether that's more interconnection, whether it's homegrown renewables, whether it's large scale offshore wind.
07:05And that's a kind of a wake up call regardless of what's happening around the world.
07:10The climate change emergency has got abundantly clear, even in the 10 years I'm talking about from 2014
07:16and the impacts of that, even the weather in the last 24 hours starts to teach us
07:21that things are not as certain as they may have felt in the past.
07:25But when I look, and I often do this with wind agents in the room so I'll do it again,
07:30the last 24 hours a very productive power plant in the UK has been Walney Extension offshore wind farm,
07:37which is the one we see from Douglas, it's an Orsted asset.
07:40For the last 24 hours it's been producing around the electricity of maybe 10 times the demand,
07:4612 times the demand of the Isle of Man.
07:48There's your opportunity from what was already there, it's about seizing it while we can.
07:52Absolutely.
07:53There's a lot of other aspects around regulatory certainty, the Climate Change Act helped massively,
07:57it makes an impetus for these things.
07:59I think the policy framework is moving it along as well.
08:02So I might have said five years ago the appetite wasn't here in the island,
08:06but I think there's no doubt now that it's clear.
08:09It always strikes me, it's very evident when you get off the ferry,
08:11you can't help but see the wind turbines moving out towards the UK.
08:15As soon as you turn around and come back again there's nothing.
08:17I've never understood that.
08:19And that's just the beginning, I always say people must keep in mind,
08:23for offshore wind the UK's target is to have 50 gigawatts by 2030, that's the next six years.
08:30That's still the target.
08:31It's extremely ambitious, but the reality of that is you should expect to see
08:36another 15 or 20 projects the size of Mervannan going up in the next six years in UK water alone.
08:43The pace at which this is happening in all of our neighbouring countries cannot be underestimated,
08:47and the real challenge is do we want to take a chance of seizing that and doing it here,
08:51or is it a question of let everyone else do it and the Isle of Man's not interested in that?
08:55That is getting to that tipping point of the fundamental question mark.
08:59Has the Isle of Man got an opportunity to lead in any way from the renewable energy story?
09:08The Isle of Man's been very good at first in its time,
09:11and we're very good now as far as being an international finance and business centre.
09:17Our regulation is world class, when you look at the e-gaming sector again it's world class.
09:22So is there anything around that as an industry that we could actually look forward to the Isle of Man leading?
09:31100%. There's maybe two advantages we have.
09:35It's all of those sectors, and Zurich's a great example with what it's felt it's had to do itself
09:42to satisfy the ESG argument and the ESG momentum that big corporates in the kind of sectors
09:48that have been big in the Isle of Man before have had.
09:50So we have an audience when we go around the world, and you come from the Isle of Man,
09:55in particular industries and sectors which are now turning the page on their own ESG strategy and implementing stuff.
10:01So that's an opportunity that can be missed.
10:03The second is island nations.
10:05It's very easy for the UK to integrate such huge amounts of renewable power
10:12when it has such a huge national grid, although it's going to need huge upgrades to accommodate what's coming.
10:17But it's got the population that requires it.
10:20So no one should ever say we're a small island because we're much more than that.
10:26But reality, when it comes to consumption and what are the solutions for that,
10:31our prospect is that you actually do something, export it to the countries that can buy it,
10:37and bring the revenue and the benefits back to the island.
10:39Have the island link for the power directly to the island and get that benefit as well.
10:43But that would be pioneering for a lot of small island nations around the world who could do the same thing
10:48and it would set the tone.
10:49But add on to that, as I say, all the stuff like on-site solar or micro-generation opportunities for business to do themselves,
10:57you paint a whole picture of an island that's taking its energy future seriously
11:02but also takes things like its UNESCO biosphere status seriously, because that's sustainable development.
11:07And a lot of people forget that when it comes to the biosphere.
11:10It's not about shutting down development altogether.
11:13It's about sustainable development for the future and what should be done in the right way to make a sustainable future.
11:18Just on the sustainability bit, sorry, Ralph.
11:21It's a good point beyond the security points.
11:24The sustainability bit, the art of man can shine, is an example.
11:28Because the sustainability is not just of power and renewable power.
11:33It's of the diversity, of the ecosystems.
11:37It's the diversity and recruiting and retaining specialist staff and technologies and engineering
11:45and all the support mechanisms that go with that.
11:48And that includes administration, legal frameworks and policies.
11:52So you end up having that circle of compliance that only the art of man can provide
11:57because it's got that set of people and skills that have been developed over quite a long time now.
12:04And there's some new developments at UCM in terms of technical sides to support this.
12:09And that's a way forward that seems very powerful to me.
12:13That's a shining example of the opportunities of the art of man.
12:17With our specialist population, it can become even more special
12:22and show the benchmark to other small islands as a sustainable way forward.
12:28And that all matches up with the aspirations of many companies.
12:32That then sustainability equals wellbeing.
12:35It's wellbeing of your population, your workers, your organisations, your companies and the individuals.
12:43And it's win-win as far as I see it to be that.
12:46Down that route as soon as possible.