confidence has been dented by talk of an end to onshore wind by the
Conservatives if elected in 2015. It is not clear if offshore wind projects
planned around our coasts will get support from government and last week
saw the closure of one of our most high-profile and leading wave energy
businesses.
However, today sees some important news for everyone who cares about the
future growth of renewable energy in Scotland, and the benefits we could
deliver.
Research conducted by Scottish Renewables, using figures from the
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and National Grid, shows
that our industry is now the largest generator of electricity in Scotland,
having overtaken nuclear power. In total, the renewables sector generated a
record 10.3TWh (terawatt-hours) in the first half of 2014, almost one-third
more than nuclear generation at 7.8TWh.
Onshore wind contributed the majority of that with hydro still responsible
for around one-third of Scotland’s renewable power output. Coal and
gas-fired electricity generation produced 5.6TWh and 1.4TWh respectively
over the same six-month period.
Record levels of the electricity we use in our homes and businesses each
year is coming from renewables and the sector is making a bigger
contribution to tackling climate change than ever. The latest figures from
the DECC show that renewable electricity displaced more than the equivalent
of taking every car, bus and lorry in Scotland off the road for a year. In
addition, every unit of renewable power means one fewer of imported gas,
increasing energy security. We also know that the industry is supporting
more than 11,000 jobs across the country.
Renewables are one of the few ways in which we can face up to the two
biggest challenges facing Scotland, UK and the rest of Europe: getting the
economy moving while reducing carbon emissions. So job done? No. The growth
of electric transport and heating means electricity consumption is likely
to rise over coming years and Scotland’s ageing power stations will have to
be replaced, with fossil fuels swapped for cleaner alternatives.
While we may have reached a significant milestone, we are only a short way
into our journey to transform the way we use energy. Scotland is home to 25
per cent of its wind and tidal potential and 10 per cent of the continent’s
wave energy but we are still a long way behind the leaders in terms of
renewable electricity generation with Austria, Sweden and Portugal
generating more than half their power from renewables.
The bad news is that we’ve probably done the easy bit. There is still more
potential for onshore wind but the big challenges of transforming our
energy sector are still to come: creating a large-scale offshore wind
industry, commercialising wave and tidal power and moving heat and
transport away from fossil fuels.
We need to see a renewed focus on energy storage, with schemes such as the
Cruachan Dam part of a portfolio of technologies to allow us to capture the
variable output from renewables or the inflexible baseload from nuclear and
marry it up to the ever fluctuating demand for power from homes and businesses.
Connecting up our islands would boost renewables output at a stroke, with
plans for some of Europe’s most productive wind farms on hold because we
can’t find a way to deliver power lines without crippling the economics of
the schemes.
And we will never have a wave and tidal industry unless we accept research
and development in marine energy. Like any other sector in the earliest
stages of development, this needs to be a shared enterprise between public
and private sectors.
And that really sums up the main lesson from the milestone announced today:
if government can deliver a degree of certainty over future targets and the
framework to get there, then confidence will return and we will deliver the
rest, to the benefit of our economy and the environmental imperative of
tackling climate change.
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