I’m very glad to be able to welcome unreservedly the news that wind farm operators Orsted are to open an Isle of Man office. Orsted, previously Dong, have held a licence for potential offshore turbines east of Maughold since I believe 2015, so maybe we can now hope that we could finally be looking at an offshore wind farm.

Figures previously mentioned by government and others suggest a potential 700MW installation which could provide us with our total predicted electricity demand.

The bulk of generation would be exported to the UK, but I understand it would not be a huge undertaking to construct a subsea substation to import our local needs direct to the island.

This is exactly the transition to renewable energy, away from dependence on gas, which we need.

The transition from oil to gas was achieved two decades ago when Pulrose gas power plant was commissioned, the next phase to move away from fossil fuel is overdue. Transition is about progression, not a justification for taking the first step, then being content to prolong what is after all just a less polluting and climate-damaging form of fossil fuel.

Crogga’s gas drilling proposal makes much of gas being a transition fuel. From a local perspective this is quite irrelevant, given that we started the journey 20 years ago and now is the time to deliver renewable clean energy.

On a wider view, other countries do indeed need to ditch coal and oil, but massive investment in gas powered infrastructure could tie them in for further decades to a fossil fuel which still emits roughly two thirds as much carbon as oil. In any case, even if a relatively short term project to replace brown coal were proposed anywhere,

I think I can guarantee there are no towns, cities or countries champing at the bit to transition to gas, the only thing holding them back being the absence of Crogga gas.

The world is awash with gas, and the big fossil fuel companies are still ploughing billions into exploiting new deposits on every continent as well as in British waters. Crogga’s implication that they would somehow be doing a good thing for the planet by being part of the transition economy, is completely hollow.

We have a Government Climate Change commitment to 20MW renewables by 2026, a second interconnector cable being planned, and now hopefully offshore wind. We do not need to drill for gas with its associated ecological damage through marine disturbance and fugitive gas escapes from the undersea installation.

The future’s now a bit brighter, the future’s green.

P Christian

Isle of Man Friends of the Earth

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This letter was first published in the Manx Independent of March 30.