Scotland’s push for renewables

Scotland is leading the UK’s drive for renewable energy development with bold targets, pioneering schemes and a raft of legislation and incentives.

In October the Scottish Government’s renewable energy framework included a commitment to source at least 20% of Scotland’s total energy needs from renewables by 2020 (in line with the EU’s 20% target), compared with a UK commitment of 15%.

The most significant change heralded by the framework is the new objective of 11% sustainable heat, says Jason Ormiston, chief executive of industry trade group Scottish Renewables. It will mean both cutting demand and using as many green heat sources as possible, including wood and other forms of biomass energy crops, solar, heat pumps, energy from waste biomass or landfill gas.

Heat accounts for 53% of total energy demand in Scotland, with electricity at 20% and transport 27%.

The Government also announced an extra £2m for the Scottish Biomass Support Scheme – on top of £10.5m already allocated – which provides grants to a range of organisations from small businesses to local authorities to encourage the use of alternatives to conventional oil and gas fired equipment. Sixty-seven new projects worth £17 million will have come on stream by the end of this year.

One of these, Steven’s Croft biomass power plant near Lockerbie, which opened in March, is the biggest such station in the UK, burning a blend of sawmill co-products, willow and recycled wood fibre. The 44MW plant has doubled Scotland’s biomass electricity output and will save an estimated 140,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, according to Government sources.

Funds and Planning

The Scottish Government is spending £35m a year over the next two years on energy and climate change initiatives, which includes £13.5m in grants for small businesses and domestic users to install sustainable technology.

Planning permission is not granted more readily in Scotland than other parts of the UK, where planning has posed a major obstacle to proposed renewable projects. Earlier this year the energy minister rejected proposals to build a 181 turbine onshore wind farm in Lewis in the Western Isles amid concerns it would damage a peatland special protection area and affect populations of golden eagles and other birds.

However, Scotland’s abundant natural resources makes it an attractive place to invest. Scotland has about 25% of the exploitable tidal energy in Europe, the same again for wind power and 10% of wave power, according to independent scientific sources.

Overall an estimated £1 billion is being invested in Scottish renewables projects, the vast majority coming from the private sector, such as Scottish & Southern Electric’s £600m Clyde onshore wind farm in South Lanarkshire. It aims to power up to 320,000 homes by 2011, with a total capacity of 548 megawatts.

Iberdrola, the Spanish owner of ScottishPower, is investing 1.2 billion euros in renewables in the UK by 2010. ScottishPower Renewables aims to have generating capacity of 1800MW by 2012 through a mix of wind, wave and tidal, up from 600MW now. Eight of its 19 renewable centres in the UK and Ireland are based in Scotland.

In the Pentland Firth, the stretch of water between the mainland and Orkney, large-scale tidal and wave power turbines could start operating by 2010 or 2011, according to the Crown Estate. Historically owned by the monarchy but now accountable to parliament, the Crown Estate owns 55% of the UK foreshore and the entire seabed out to the 12 nautical miles territorial limit. It claims to have received expressions of interest from 14 consortiums to build 23 offshore wind farms in Scottish waters.

Dubbed a potential “Saudi Arabia of marine power”, the Pentland Firth contains six of the top 10 best sites in the UK for tidal power development and is also attractive for wave power. The area already contains the European Marine Energy Centre, the first test base of its kind in the world, at Stromness in Orkney.

Incentives

The Scottish Government plans to boost wave and tidal technology using the UK’s renewable subsidy scheme – the Renewables Obligation. Wave devices will earn five Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per megawatt and tidal devices will earn three, compared to the single ROC per megawatt earned by established technologies such as onshore wind and hydropower.

In England and Wales, wave and tidal are due to receive only two ROCs per megawatt.

Infrastructure is also being upgraded. ScottishPower has completed an £84 million project for two new 400kV primary sub stations in South Lanarkshire, one of which will serve the new wind farm.

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth Scotland welcomes the impetus behind renewables but says Scotland has far to go to become a European leader. “It’s much easier in Scotland because of its geography but the UK as a whole is massively lagging behind Europe. There are lots of countries with fewer resources that are further ahead, such as Germany.”



Facts

- Scottish electricity mix in 2006 (latest official statistics): 15 per cent from renewables including hydro; 26 per cent nuclear, 33 per cent coal, 22 per cent gas and 4 per cent oil.

- Scotland generates more electricity than it consumes, and exports its excess to the rest of UK.

Scottish energy targets:

- Proportion of energy for heat that will be produced from renewables: 11% by 2020, compared to 1% in 2008.
- Gross electricity consumption from renewables: 31% by 2011, and 50% by 2020, compared with 16% in 2008.

The Scottish Climate Change Bill will set annual targets to cut all six greenhouse gas emissions, en route to an overall 80% drop in emissions by 2050. It is not yet clear what those levels will be. The Scottish Green Party wants annual reductions of 4.5% but the Scottish Government has mooted 3%.