Unique and remote, the Isles of Scilly lie 28 miles off the tip of Land’s End in the far southwest of the UK. The islands are one of the most protected landscapes and environments in England, a designated Conservation Area, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Heritage Coast. With five inhabited islands supporting a permanent population of just over 2,200, Scilly attracts over 100,000 visitors each year.
The islands are carbon-intensive, ranking highest in England for fuel poverty, due to their dependence on electricity and imported fossil fuels, such as heating oil. But the Isles of Scilly have bold energy goals for their future. In 2015, an island-wide partnership was established to implement a set of inter-connected projects, with the aim to cut electricity bills by 40%, meet 40% of energy demand through renewables and see 40% of vehicles be low carbon or electric by 2025.
Our solution
The partnership brought Hitachi together with the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the Duchy of Cornwall, Tesco, and the Islands’ Partnership – all collaborating to help residents and businesses move to a lower-carbon economy. The partnership demonstrates that Social Innovation can be driven from even the smallest communities to build solutions for their unique challenges.
In the first project to be delivered, Smart Energy Islands, we drew on our experience from a demonstration project on Maui. The objective was to make better use of renewable energy, energy efficiency and help reduce the cost of energy on the Isles of Scilly. Smart Energy Islands used technology, including Hitachi’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to reduce the carbon footprint of the island whilst optimising locally produced, renewable energy.
With funding support from the European Regional Development Fund covering 80% of the cost of the programme, we invested our own resources in the project at its own cost to an estimated amount of £1.1m with smaller amounts invested by the other delivery partners including two of the UK’s leading smart home technology companies: PassivSystems and Moixa. Together with the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the partners set about delivering the project.
Around 400kW of solar panels have been installed on the roofs of 70 of the Council’s homes, the fire station, a recycling facility and desalination plant, and in a solar garden by the airport. Homes are also piloting a variety of energy technologies, including batteries and air source heat pumps. Hitachi’s cloud-based Internet of Things platform is managing energy use: learning consumption patterns, optimising how power is collected and used throughout the house, and linking it to the wider electricity grid. By integrating solar power, batteries and smart heating technologies, the scheme will make the homes more energy-efficient, while also providing energy efficiency support to over 200 small and medium sized businesses in the islands and UK mainland.
The next stage was to introduce electric vehicles to the islands’ new energy system – and electric vehicles can also be used as batteries, charging them up when renewable power is in high supply and drawing energy from them during peak demand. Known as vehicle-to grid (or V2G), electric cars can help the community switch to cleaner energy at their homes and businesses, as well as reduce transport air pollution. Further renewable energy generation and innovative ways to manage water and waste will follow up the Hitachi projects that finished in 2022. We are now providing ongoing support for the installed equipment, software and technology.
The islands have also seen the establishment of a not-for-profit community interest company, the Isles of Scilly Community Venture, setup to sell energy generated by the solar panels and recycle the income to reduce electricity bills for all islanders through a local Isles of Scilly energy tariff.
Benefits delivered
Delivering a truly community-based approach, the Smart Energy Islands project uses technology to meet the needs of Isles of Scilly communities. Size and location are no barrier to innovation – what is important is the foresight to see the positive impacts that will follow; for the environment, for the community and the desire to make a difference.
We have been pleased to have been involved and to have invested in the Smart Islands programme and we are proud of the benefits that the islanders have gained. We see this as a win-win relationship since we have also gained valuable insights into the impact of the implementation of electric vehicles and renewable energy on a community as well as some useful software assets and a valuable case study reference.