Utility hits green energy milestone

Scottish Water produced enough renewable energy last year to power its entire operation twice over.

The utility said a total of 923 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy was generated on its sites last year, either directly through its own operations or through hosted third-party schemes.

The figure is more than double the 440 GWh of energy its operations need.

“Every day, Scottish Water provides customers with 1.35 billion litres of drinking water before collecting and treating 945 million litres of waste water,” Scottish Water’s Fraser Purves said.

“Providing those essential services requires a lot of power but our infrastructure also provides opportunities for us to maximise value from that asset base and fulfil our duty to act sustainably in the delivery of our services.

The figures were revealed as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon kicked off the two-day All Energy conference in Glasgow yesterday.