Oct 1st: A Shetland Mystery: The Story of Sandy Macaulay, His Unexplained Disappearance, and the Hydrogen Car

For the last twelve months dark rumours and wild speculations have engulfed a tiny Shetland island, following the disappearance of a prominent and well-liked member of the local community.

The isle of Unst is the most northerly populated place in Scotland, with around five hundred people living there. These are hardy folk, most of whom work in traditional industries. There was, however, a remarkable exception amongst them.

Sandy Macaulay was a director of the PURE Energy Centre, which employed six people, and was located about a mile from his home in the Hagdale Industrial Estate. Enjoying the isolation of the small close-knit island community, Macaulay was working on the development of wind-power and hydrogen-based renewable energy technologies.

Macaulay was last seen at 11.25pm, a year ago today. He was spotted in his office by an acquaintance. The day before he'd been at a tourist conference in Unst. He'd also attended the opening of a new shop on the island, called The Final Checkout, which was located next door to the PURE Energy Centre.

Macaulay often worked late. Records show that on this particular night his computer was last accessed at 5am. Around 5.20am two cars were seen coming from the Hagdale estate. Sandy Macaulay has never been seen since. Nor have the drivers of the two vehicles been traced.

As the months have passed all sorts of theories have taken legs. Suicide. Accident. Abduction. Even murder. They all have their backers.

WHO WAS SANDY MACAULAY?

Sandy Macaulay was a man of many talents and a dedicated environmentalist. He was one of the three founding directors of the PURE Energy Centre. PURE were involved in developing and testing a hydrogen-powered eco-friendly car as a viable alternative to reliance on petrol.

The PURE Energy Centre - an offshoot of the ongoing PURE project (Promoting Unst's Renewable Energy) - has built an international reputation in a short space of time. To quote its own website:

"Since the Pure Energy Centre was established in February 2006 it has been involved in off-grid energy projects and renewable hydrogen developments in 4 continents, has delivered specialist training in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies to over 100 students, and has hosted visits, conducted workshops and delivered presentations to businesses, politicians of all parties, investors, engineers, school students, academic researchers, and public agencies."

Sandy Macaulay was no friend of either the oil industry or the car industry. He was an outspoken critic of both. Macaulay had gone on record as saying that oil had "caused wars, massive human rights abuses, corrupted entire political systems, and increased levels of poverty for millions throughout Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East."

Macaulay had first hand experience of humanitarian disasters brought about by the global greed for oil. In 2002 Macaulay was part of a humanitarian aid mission to Afghanistan following America's military intervention there. In 2004 Macaulay visited Darfur where he condemned oil companies for exacerbating one of the world's worst ever humanitarian crises. Macaualay was also in Iraq following the recent American blitz, war and occupation of the country.

Macaulay was vocal in his opposition to the US-British war against Iraq, and according to the Shetland Times he "publicly accused the British intelligence services of being wholly inept or liars because of their false advice to the government about the military threat from Saddam".

Macaulay tried to arrange a visit to Shetland from Nigeria to show how the people in Shetland had benefitted from oil, whereas ordinary Nigerians had suffered as a consequence of oil being found there. Needless to say the Shetland Council panicked and pulled the plug on the visit.

His wife Jane said of him: "He's not afraid to say what he believes, and he refuses to accept injustice on either a very small or a very large scale. His humanity and fervent beliefs have touched the lives of many who have known him."

Macaulay had been on humanitarian aid missions to a number of oil rich countries, such as Angola and Indonesia, and perhaps as a consequence of what he had seen there - the corruption of governments and the rape and exploitation of both land and people - he was working in Shetland on developing a viable alternative to petrol-driven vehicles.

The PURE Energy Centre were experimenting with Britain's first road-licensed hydrogen car, a unique vehicle in that it is charged by windpower. "We are challenging the conventional wisdom from the energy industry that hydrogen and windpower are too complex and expensive to be used," he told The Scotsman (8 Aug 2006), less than two months before his disappearance. The PURE offices, like their hydrogen-powered car, were run entirely on windpower and wind-generated hydrogen.

In August 2005 Sandy Macaulay told the BBC "I would imagine that within the next five years there will be more vehicles going round the island, powered by renewable hydrogen." "We can either use hydrogen to convert back into electricity or we can use it as a fuel," colourfully adding: "It allows us, effectively, to bottle the wind."

Macaulay, it should be noted, was not the stereotypical scientific loner. He was a gregarious person, with a wife and three children, who loved his rock'n'roll and played in a local band called the Bonxies. He was well known in the Unst community since he settled there in 1988.

CLUELESS

I havent a clue what happened to Sandy Macaulay. There is no hard evidence to suggest that he was either abducted or murdered. The local police are stumped. They have suggested that the two mystery cars may have been early morning "twitchers" or bird-watchers. But they havent backed this up with any proof.

A bizarre news story appeared in print soon after his death (mysteriously appearing as if from nowhere) claiming that Macaulay suffered from depression and took his own life. No hard proof of such a claim was offered and his wife Jane dismissed the story: "Some people have mentioned suicide as a possibility but if they know Sandy they will know that he is a very determined man and never gives up on anything he does. He also adores his family and is a very proud father. That discounts that theory immediately as far as I am concerned."

Not one of the national Scottish or British newspapers has so far picked up on this story. Which seems strange in itself. Only the local Shetland Times and Shetland News carried pieces to mark the first anniversary of Macaulay's mysterious disappearance.

ALTERNATIVES TO PETROL-DRIVEN CARS

In recent years, there have been other similar projects, involving alternatives to petrol-driven cars, that have come to strange or premature endings.

The documentary film, WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR, was released last year to much critical acclaim. This documentary tells the story of how General Motors first tested, and then killed off a popular and viable alternative to petrol-driven vehicles. This lovely environmentally-friendly car was opposed by powerful lobbies in the car industry, the oil industry, and the US goverment.

Then there is the strange story of inventor Stanley Allen Meyer and his water-fuelled dune buggy. He claimed that a water-powered sand buggy could cross the US on just 22 gallons of water. The idea behind Meyer's innovation was electrolysis. (It is explained better here). The theory was that by passing an electrical current through water, the bonded hydrogen and oxygen can be separated and burned to power a car engine.

Meyer never proved his theory, despite filing a number of patents on it. He died in mysterious circumstances in March 1998 in Grove City, Ohio, after drinking a cranberry juice in a restaurant. His brother claims his last words were "They poisoned me." All grist to the mill for conspiracy theorists. The coroner's official verdict was death by aneurism.

However not every big business corporation is opposed to alternatives to oil-based fuels. BMW certainly aren't. Just last year they announced the arrival of the BMW Hydrogen V motor car - what they called the world's "first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile for everyday use". BMW announced its launch just weeks before Macaulay's disappearance.