The renewables answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

AS BOB Dylan famously sang – the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

At least it should be.

The attention of those leading on Guernsey's renewable energy future has switched away from tidal power, which has struggled to bring the technology into a commercial scale despite such promise a decade or so ago.

Take a look at the trouble now engulfing Alderney's dalliance with tidal as a warning – unpaid fees from the company with the sea bed rights and the only hope so far of exporting electricity, if it did come to fruition, being given a hostile reaction from the community and threatening simply to by-pass the island.

Where Alderney goes from here, its reputation dented, but with an enormous untapped resource on its doorstep, is anyone's guess, but it looks like a period of consolidation, or, in other words, playing a waiting game for the technology to develop to maturity elsewhere.

Guernsey's approach has been that it will not take a lead on renewables, but with wind power it has never had to.

The technology is not only proven, the first offshore wind farm dates to 1991, it is developing to bigger and more efficient units.

Still we tip-toe forward, dripping small change into studies, laying the ground work.

But when we look to our future economy in 10 or 20 years' time, we may look back on this period of relative inactivity as a missed opportunity.

We know the island needs to diversify – and the renewables industry as a whole offers a very tangible opportunity to do that.

It is not hard to see the ancillary benefits of both wind and tidal – a chance to attract new business to the island, new jobs with different skills, links into the investment industry, to become an educational centre, maybe that university presence that is always on the lips.

Guernsey could become a renewables centre of excellence, but that requires the big, bold and brave vision that our Economic Development president likes to talk about.

Nobody is really prepared to take that step at the moment.

It barely warrants a mention in the Policy & Resource plan – the very document that this kind of joined-up opportunity should be screaming out of.

Clearly the States does not feel now is the time to think big.

Environment & Infrastructure is much more concerned with reviews of biodiversity, which, however worthy, feel unambitious in comparison.

Policy & Resources itself promises to have the ownership of the sea bed and territorial sea issue sorted by 2020.

Nothing can happen without that – and talks have been ongoing with the UK on that for around a decade with no resolution.

You cannot help but feel there is something blocking progress there, maybe a lack of real desire on our part, or some politicising and leveraging on theirs.

An offshore wind project is big money, no doubt.

The latest study earmarked three preferred sites with a price tag of between £68m. and £108m. for just five turbines producing 30MW.

It is at times like this you look at the bond money and question whether it is best invested in the financial markets, a runway extension or a new industry.

Of course, that is not even a debate that will be had because of the rate of progress.

The caution with which Guernsey is approaching this opportunity is even evident in the current preference for where an offshore wind site would be located.

A floating platform right on the 12-mile limit is in pole position because of the feeling that those areas closer to the shore would not get public backing.

Out of sight, out of mind, but with an extra £40m. price tag.

As we have seen with Alderney, public acceptance is an important driver, but five turbines, 5KM offshore is not a blot on the landscape like the two power station chimneys rising from the Bridge, for example.

People fear the unknown, and the visual impact really is an unknown, based around hypothetical perception at this stage.

A 30MW wind farm is also tiny.

As recognised in the study, those in the industry would look at it and wonder why they would get involved.

The largest operational offshore wind farm is the 630MW London array.

The world's biggest will be off the Yorkshire coast – 300 turbines covering an area the size of

Hull to deliver 1,800MW to power 1.8 million homes.

That project is expected to 2,000 employment opportunities during construction, and 300 additional jobs when operating from 2020.

It is part of a £6bn. investment to make Yorkshire the hub for the UK's renewable energy sector.

With that kind of ambition being shown elsewhere, Guernsey is losing ground already.

And then right on our doorstep Cherbourg has developed into an offshore renewables hub – the latest to move in LM Wind with its blade factory.

There are plans for 62 eight MW turbines to be built 23 miles from Jersey's south-west coast in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc.

Construction is set to start in 2018 to be operational by 2020.

Collaboration with a large project with the associated economies of scale might be the only way to get something that scale Guernsey is looking at off the ground.

Drivers for renewables are not just about economic diversity, but security of supply, affordability and environmental.

Guernsey is being too timid to fully grasp an opportunity that is screaming out to be taken.