Another interesting point arose from some new houses being built there. Each house came with a Tesla power wall as standard. They also had a small solar array on the roof. The reason it wasn't larger was there was so much wind power on Orkney that the grid there simply couldn't cope with all the renewable energy being produced. On top of that, insulation standards were so high that the houses were only just below "passive house" standards - ie properties that required no heat.
Orkney is a net exporter of electricity, but the cable to Scotland is often running at capacity, and there is no sign of any investment to improve the link. There are a number of options being explored to prevent (expensive) forced turbine shutdowns when the grid is unable to accept the electricity generated, such as the experiments with hydrogen production for the ferries, and heating initiatives on the North Isles to dump excess electricity into domestic storage heaters at discounted rates.
Orkney has a relatively high requirement for domestic heating. Although most new build is of high quality and very energy efficient, there is also a large stock of traditional housing which is very poor thermally.
The problem with the abundance of energy in places like Orkney, and to some extent some off shore wind, and even nuclear generation, is the transmission distances required. The electricity is simply not where it is needed, and transmission losses can be very significant with current technology. It is no accident that coal fired generation was built in a pattern radiating out from major population centres.
As Jocko said, the answer to wind/solar is storage. However, the grid and generation facilities are now being built around these unreliable renewable sources of electricity, and vast amounts of money are being poured into accommodating long term supply contracts for peak demand supply. I live near two 2GW coal fired power stations slated for closure soon, a new gas fired station of similar capacity has been built behind one, a new fast response gas station is being built now, and plans are emerging for another fast response gas station on the same site.