TWENTY-FOUR hour electricity has finally come to two of the UK’s most remote island communities thanks to help from three Herefordshire companies.

Renewable energy specialists Wind & Sun, based in Upper Hill, Leominster, were commissioned to help develop sustainable systems to deliver a reliable, eco-friendly source of power to Fair Isle, along with Canna and Sanday, in Scotland.

The company, founded in 1984, now has an international client base and has been instrumental in delivering renewable energy solutions to other isolated communities, and their involvement in this project followed the success of their earlier pioneering work on the Isles of Eigg, connected to the grid with their assistance in 2008 and Muck, to which they helped bring 24-hour power in 2013.

All three islands have relied upon diesel generators for decades.

The expense of running these and the difficulties in supplying the islands during poor weather conditions have meant intermittent power supplies and overnight black-outs for the 55 inhabitants of Fair Isle in the Shetlands.

Those same poor weather conditions will now work to the advantage of the islanders and the environment, with new solar photovoltaic and wind turbine powered systems finally installed on the islands during the summer by contractors including Wind & Sun and two other Herefordshire companies; Fownhope-based solar photovoltaic system specialists SolarKinetics and Hereford electrical and renewable heating contractors, Pro-Fit Energy.

Canna Renewable Energy and Electrification director Geraldine Creer said: “The island is exposed to the full force of Atlantic gales and we can finally start to put that to good use.

"As well as reducing the noise and pollution from the generators the new scheme will give us the capacity to build additional houses here, to increase the number of people who can make their home on this beautiful island.”