Video: The Laird of Muck: 'Everybody else has 24 hour power' This led to all sort of practical problems for islanders as everything that needed electricity had to be fitted in around those of hours and even then combinations of high power appliances like washing machines and hoovers could not be switched on at the same time. This, along with the islands need to attract new people to replenish its 38 person population, led to a successful application for £978,840 from the Big Lottery Fund to build a new wind and solar plant on Muck. The plant was completed in March and since then islanders have been using only renewable energy for all their electricity, apart from one brief period when the wind was calm and the sun was very weak. But for those who decided on island life when there was no 24hr power is there a worry that the very thing that brought them to this isolation will be changed? I think one has a feeling that the island was unique when it didn't have 24hr power and of course we are losing that. But, I think the advantages are such that it certainly counteracts any loss of individuality. Everybody else has 24 hour power so I suppose we ought to have it too," said Mr MacEwen