Orkney Renewable Energy Forum - OREF

29/04/2026

Don't forget, the 'surprise' EV gathering tomorrow (Thursday) in Stromness to meet a 'guest EV' on demonstration at the pier. We are going to do a group photo at about 1:15, so if you have an EV (especially unusual ones/bikes etc) we are planning to begin assembling at about 12:45.

28/04/2026

The Rural Energy Hubs project, based in Orkney and Shetland, developed a replicable model for a genuinely place-based, community-led approach to overcoming non-technical barriers and accelerating decarbonisation in rural and island communities. The purpose of the Hubs is to help individuals, businesses and communities to reduce their carbon emissions and their energy bills. The project was funded by Innovate UK and has built on learning from previous innovation projects such as ReFLEX Orkney and Heat Smart Orkney. The project partners were Aquatera, Community Energy Scotland, EMEC, Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council.

The project team established the pilot Rural Energy Hub in Brae, Shetland, and trialled a broad range of services, technologies and facilities that could be incorporated into a Hub, ranging from building retrofit, community transport and energy monitoring, to trials of an electric bin lorry, bus, heavy lift drone and Hydrogen Combined Heat and Power unit at Kirkwall airport. The team developed a Replication Framework that provides a step-by-step process for developing and delivering future Rural Energy Hubs.

Anna Marriot, Senior Consultant Aquatera and Lead Project Manager of the Rural Energy Hubs Project will give an overview of the concept of Rural Energy Hubs, the pilot set up in Brae and the services trialled, examining how the Project has built on previous learnings and discussing how developing a network of Hubs could support rural decarbonisation in new locations.

Tea & coffee available from 6.45pm. The event is free to OREF members, £5 for non-members. Contact [email protected] for zoom details.

08/04/2026

OREF assisted in the organisation of a full day of renewables related talks and visits around Orkney this week for a group of students on the MSc Energy, Society and Sustainability programme at Edinburgh University.

01/04/2026

Join us for an evening at Burgar Hill, where Melissa Spence of Burgar Hill Renewables will share a bit about the history of the site and the plans to keep generation going at one of the UK's oldest wind farms.

Burgar Hill was established as a test site for wind energy technologies in the early 1980s, and at the time, was home to one of the largest wind turbines in the world. Once the technology was proven, commercial wind generation commenced around 1999/2000. Currently the site generates approximately 12.5MW with proposed repowering plans aiming to more than double output from the same footprint, subject to consent.

The event will be held in the Visitors Centre, Burgar Hill, Evie on Tuesday 7th April at 7pm. If time and interest allow, we may also do a site walkover. We’d love to hear your own stories and memories of Burgar Hill over the years.

This event is being recorded and will be uploaded to the OREF website at a later date.

27/03/2026

On Tuesday 31st of March at 7pm at the King Street Hall Orkney Renewable Energy Forum is holding the Orkney Energy Hustings for the candidates standing in the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in May.

OREF Board member and chair of the evening Ian Johnstone said “All declared candidates have indicated they will participate and it should be a lively event.”

OREF members held an event in November to produce an Orkney Energy Manifesto to put before the candidates. The OREF Board used the comments made to produce Manifesto and the intention is to hear from the candidates how they would intend to help deliver on the proposals OREF has put forward.

The Manifesto covers ten main points including the better definition of ‘Orkney’s waters’ to capture the value of offshore generation, measures to support decarbonisation, greater use of local capacity and better energy planning.

A copy of the Manifesto is available on the OREF website.

Doors will open at 6:30 for tea and coffee. The event will be live streamed, but only questions from those in the room will be asked of the candidates. For a link to the meeting contact [email protected]

20/03/2026

A team from Great British Energy are going to be in Orkney for a few days to better understand what has been achieved in the county.

As part of their visit there will be an extra OREF public meeting on Tuesday 24th of March at 7pm at King Street Hall to both hear more about their recently published Local Power Plan, but also for them to hear more about what Orkney has done and is seeking to achieve.

Great British Energy was set up by the present Government to increase public ownership of the nation’s energy system. The Local Power Plan sets out to help communities have a bigger stake in their energy future and OREF believes Orkney has already blazed some of that trail.

This will be an opportunity to hear from the top about what they want to do and hopefully how their plans will help Orkney move further and faster, and in doing so continue to allow the county to remain at the leading edge of renewable development.

Of particular interest is GBE’s recognition in the Plan that ‘right now, many projects struggle because the energy system isn’t structured to recognise, encourage or financially reward locally produced power’ which is something OREF has long campaigned on. And ‘…government will work with communities so they can reap the rewards of local energy’.

They say that they ‘will explore, with stakeholders and expertise, the future potential of generating and sharing power locally’… and this meeting will be a good opportunity to hear more about what GBE needs to bring this about along with GBE hearing from OREF what we believe needs to happen based on our experiences.

Tea & Coffee will be available from 6.45pm. This event is being recorded and will be made available on the OREF website.

02/03/2026

Tomorrow at 7pm (3rd March) Orkney’s Blue Robotarium

Venue: ICNZ Hub Stromness (Old Academy/Charles Clouston Building)

Gareth Davies will explain the progress made since the talk in 2025 by Stewart Miller to establish the marine version of the terrestrial ‘robotarium’ that has been created in Edinburgh.

Gareth will show how we can pilot the use of new tools in the marine environment by building on the experience and facilities of local businesses and institutions already in Orkney.

All welcome for the 7pm start. Free to OREF members (and staff of member businesses). £5 for non-members.

02/02/2026

On Tuesday 3rd February retired Hydro Electric Engineer Martin Lee will give us an insight into how the lights are kept on in Orkney and elsewhere, and what is needed for the future in Orkney as we increasingly switch to electrification of everything, to fight climate change and get to net zero.

Martin spent 14 years working in Orkney in many roles for Hydro Electric before working in Reading and finally Inverness for SSE. He has been a member of several Energy Network Association working groups and has chaired two of them. He retired in 2017.

This event will take place in the Upper Room, King Street Halls, Kirkwall at 7pm with tea & coffee from 6.45pm. Free to OREF members, £5 to non-members.

Please contact [email protected] if you wish to attend via Zoom.

27/11/2025

Can ocean waves close the gaps in a wind and solar based energy system?

Trine Bjorn Olsen, visiting scholar at HWU, will present at this event will take place in the Upper Room, King St Halls, Kirkwall at 7pm on Tuesday 2nd December with refreshments available from 6.45pm.

Free to OREF members, £5 for non-members
For further info or to register for online attendance please contact [email protected]

20/11/2025

UHI's TRANSECTS Project is inviting people with experience of renewables to two information gathering events on renewables on Saturday 29 November.
Sessions are at: 11-1 and 2-4 (lunch provided at 1pm).
Robert Rendall Building, Orkney Research & Innovation Campus (ORIC), Stromness.

More info here:

Details of the TRANSitions in Energy for Coastal Communities across Time and Space (TRANSECTS) project.