Peat: what if the peat power station at Altnabreac had worked?

When I stop with guests beside a working peat cutting, we sometimes get the chance to ask about preparing fuel for the winter. There is cutting, laying out, stacking and drying, with months between lifting the wet peat and bringing it home. Knowing the effort involved, I was astonished to discover that this relatively low-energy fuel had been considered for electricity generation on an industrial scale. In the 1950s, the moors around Altnabreac appeared to offer something much more ambitious than warmth for the fireplace, and local people had been campaigning for years to see that possibility explored.

The attraction was understandable. Britain was concerned about coal supplies, while the North had enormous peat deposits and communities badly in need of employment. Machinery could replace much of the back-breaking preparation, and new turbine technology might make generating electricity economical. In 1953, approval came for an experimental scheme, bringing the prospect of work based on something the region already possessed. I can sympathise with that ambition, because Dounreay subsequently demonstrated how a major technological project could transform livelihoods in the North, bringing substantial benefits alongside difficulties of its own.

The peat experiment took physical shape near Braehour, in the Scotscalder district, with a station building, equipment to handle and pulverise the fuel, and a turbine intended to generate electricity from it. Experimental operation began in 1958, but controlling combustion proved troublesome, while a wet summer interfered with drying the peat. By 1960, the experiment had been abandoned on economic grounds. Even that did not finish the argument, because in 1974 local Liberals proposed another peat-fired station at Altnabreac, with the energy crisis making a home-grown fuel supply look attractive once again.

Looking back now, I find myself wondering what would have happened if the first experiment had succeeded and encouraged extraction across much larger areas. The employment would have been welcome, but extensive drainage and removal would have damaged peatlands whose carbon we now work to keep in the ground. These were people trying to improve life here, which makes their ambition understandable without making its possible consequences any less alarming. In the audio blogcast, we explore why the proposal surprised me, why I sympathise with its supporters, and what we would actually have done with the land they hoped to reclaim beneath the peat.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.