Communities on the Isle of Islay are moving forward with plans for tidal energy and renewable fuels while maintaining age old methods of agriculture and whisky distilling.
Everything seems to slow down on Islay - this southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides - also known as 'The Queen of the Hebrides'. Drivers wave as you pass them on the narrow roads. It's disconcerting at first: how can they ALL know you? Perhaps they think you're someone else - perhaps someone famous! In fact, it's simply what these 3,000+ friendly and open islanders do - wave at each other and, while you're on the island, they wave at you too. You become, temporarily, part of the island's community. And, after a short while, you start to recognise these waving people - sailing on the ferries, working in one of the island's seven distilleries, or farming the land.
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Islay's main land use is agriculture, and it connects with the island's distilleries and, of course, the sea. From the pure water flowing through heather and peat bogs, to the locally farmed barleys, malt and botanicals, Islay's islanders work together, often using traditional methods, in creating an environment that is unusually 'green', community-based and traditional.
All the whisky on Islay is brewed using malted barley. The process is basically as follows (and necessarily condensed for this article). Barley is moistened and kept warm, which encourage the grain to grow - followed shortly after by baking. This arrests the process, and the resulting grain will be crunchy and sweet. The ground grain is then combined with hot water to soak out all the sugars. Yeast is added, and fermentation begins. Once it is completed, the liquid is then distilled twice, and the resulting whisky is poured into oak wood casks, to slumber there for the next eight to 40 years.
And in [the] seawater lies another of Islay's steps into an eco-friendly future. Scottish Power Renewables are proposing to develop a demonstration tidal array in the Sound of Islay, with ten 1MW tidal stream generating devices. These will be fully submerged on the seabed just south of Port Askaig. If the demonstration array operates as expected, it will generate around 30GWh per year - enough energy for Islay's homes and the island's distilleries. And recently, researchers took samples of whisky distilling by-products as the basis for producing butanol that can be used as fuel. The demonstration device array manufacture is planned for 2012, with an expected installation date of 2013.
Article continues: http://www.theecologist.org/how_to_make_a_difference/food_and_gardening/677484/whisky_and_waves_the_future_of_scottish_isles_power.html
