Power showers
Wet weather creates green energy boost
SCOTLAND’S notoriously wet weather has helped green electricity generation to soar by a third in the past year.
New figures show the amount of renewable energy produced r ose by 30 per cent fuelled by a huge increase in hydro-electricity.
The f i gures show that hydrogeneration soared by half in the first six months of the year, thanks to aboveaverage rainfall.
According to the Department of Energy and Climate change, hydrogeneration rose by 78 per cent in the first quarter as rainfall doubled on the same period in 2013.
Thermal electricity also rose, while wind farms produced 20 per cent more than the previous year. Overall, almost half of all electricity produced in Scotland in the first half of 2014 came from renewable sources.
Renewables are estimated to have provided 46 per cent of gross electricity
‘Record amounts of
clean electricity’
consumption in 2013, up f rom 40 per cent the year before.
The figures were welcomed by environmental group WWF Scotland.
However, industry group Scottish Renewables warned that Scotland’s 2020 renewable heat target remained ‘worryingly out of reach’, despite progress in the sector.
The Scottish Government said Scotland was on track to meet its interim target of achieving 50 per cent of its electricity demand from green power by 2015.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing claimed renewable generation continued ‘to go from strength to strength’. He said: ‘Scottish renewable electricity made up 32 per cent of the UK’s renewable energy generation in 2013 and we continue to be a net exporter of electricity.
‘Energy efficiency sits at the top of our energy hierarchy and the progress being made is welcome.’
Mr Ewing added: ‘We are committed to making Scotland a leading low carbon i nvestment dest i nati o n, delivering growth from the growing low carbon sector and ensuring communities across Scotland can benefit from the opportunities that the transition to a low carbon economy brings.’
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: ‘Coming off the back of recent calls by the UN for more action on climate change, it’s fantastic to hear that Scotland is continuing to generate record amounts of clean, renewable electricity.
‘Even more encouraging is the fact that this looks like being yet another record year f or renewables in Scotland.
‘This is good news for all those concerned with cutting carbon emissions, creating jobs and keeping the lights on.
‘However, if we’re to meet our aim of generating 100 per cent of our electricity needs from renewables by 2020 then we’ll need to see c ontinued government support in both Holyrood and Westminster.
‘This is especially the case for offshore wind power, where we need to see a major roll-out of sites in Scottish waters in the next few years.’
Scottish Renewables said the figures showed that 3 per cent of the country’s warmth came from biomass, solar thermal panels, energy from waste and heat pumps in 2012. But it claimed that, with a target of 11 per cent by 2020, the sector had been ‘left behind’.
Scottish Renewables policy manager Stephanie Clark said: ‘Half the energy we use goes on creating warmth, but a sector which has such an important role to play in combating climate change and reducing fuel poverty is not even considered important enough to be included as one of the Scottish Government’s indicators of progress.
‘We do not see the capacity which will allow us to hit the 2020 target and capitalise on the reductions in fuel poverty and carbon emissions which achieving it would bring.’