ISLES is a collaborative project between the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland. Funded mainly by the EU's INTERREG IVA Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), it is assessing the feasibility of creating an offshore interconnected transmission network and subsea electricity grid based on renewable energy sources off the coast of western Scotland and in the Irish Sea/North Channel area.
The target area has huge potential for capturing wind, wave and tidal energy. However, each region’s electricity network has not been developed as an offshore grid to exploit this major marine renewable resource and grid infrastructure is poor. As a result,the capacity to generate electricity is not matched by the ability to collect and transport that energy to market.
The results of the ISLES Feasibility Study, carried out by RPS Group, were disseminated at a major conference on 23 Nov. 2011. See here for the conference presentations. A draft of the main findings of the ISLES Study is available here.
