The 1974 Zetland and Orkney County Council Acts helped North Sea oil to come ashore by granting powers for local council control and setting up the reserve funds for the community. But how did the UK’s tiniest councils convince a busy Westminster to give them powers beyond any other UK local authority? Dr Tim Noble of Heriot-Watt University tells the story.

Orkney’s role as an energy exporter has continued to develop, with oil joined today by wind, tide and wave developments. What can we expect over the next 5-10 years – and what infrastructure do we need to put in place to get the maximum benefits? Neil Kermode of EMEC and Gareth Davies of Aquatera give a perspective from the heart of the ongoing developments.

Thistle Wind Partners are working on plans for a floating wind farm 21 km east of Deerness, with construction starting around 2029. Project director Ian Taylor describes progress and the shape of the future.

Prof. Peter Marshall of Warwick University, born and raised in Orkney, looks into three crucial centuries that shaped the islands of today. And though Orkney itself, as he reflects in his new book Storm’s Edge, is often seen as remote from the mainstream, the remote places are where the force of the storm can best be seen.

100 years ago Kirkwall got its first mains electricity when the Town Council bought a WWI generating station from the former Houton seaplane base. Bill Stevenson of Orkney Vintage Club tells the story of the power stations and the machinery within them, and Prof. Tom Stevenson of the Museum of Communication in Burntisland looks at the advances that made them possible.

Through 30 years after World War II, engineers deployed by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board built some 50 major dams across the region, and over 20,000 miles of power line, and brought electricity to the Highlands and Islands. The workforce had to cope with weather and geology to turn the vision into reality. Caithness author James Miller tells their story.