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Published on November 27th, 2014 | by Joshua S Hill

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Renewable Energy Now Scotland’s Largest Source Of Power

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November 27th, 2014 by  

Scotland just keeps managing to surprise us, and according to independent trade body Scottish Renewables, it’s done it again, with numbers from the first half of 2014 showing that renewable energy was Scotland’s largest source of power.

The figures showed that, for the first half of 2014, renewable energy generated 32% more electricity than any other single source of power in Scotland, generating a record 10.3 TWh.

“The announcement that renewables have become Scotland’s main source of electricity is historic news for our country, and shows the investment made in the sector is helping to deliver more power than ever before to our homes and businesses,” said Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables.

In behind renewable energy was nuclear power, previously Scotland’s main source of electricity, with 7.8 TWh for the first six months. Coal followed with only 5.6 TWh, and natural gas much further behind at 1.4 TWh.

“This important milestone is good news for anyone who cares about Scotland’s economy, our energy security and our efforts to tackle climate change,” Stuart added. “Every unit of power generated from renewables means less carbon emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, decreases our reliance on imported energy and supports jobs and investment in communities across Scotland.”

Scotland has been a dominant source of renewable energy news over the past twelve months. The country’s renewable energy industry reportedly received a significant boost after the country voted “No” on its independence referendum. (Though, I’m sure there is debate on that matter.)

Earlier this month, WWF Scotland revealed that October was a “bumper month” for the Scottish wind energy sector, generating over 100% of residential electricity needs throughout the country.

Scotland

“While nuclear power plants were being forced to shut because of cracks, Scotland’s wind and sunshine were quietly and cleanly helping to keep the lights on in homes across the country,” said WWF Scotland’s director, Lang Banks. “With wind power generating enough electricity to power 126% of the needs of every home in Scotland, it really was a bumper month for renewables in Scotland.”

Covering the Scottish renewable energy industry has been one of the highlights of the past year, and their contribution to the global energy’s health is undeniable.

“The renewables industry has come a long way in a short space of time, but there is still plenty of potential for further growth,” Niall Stuart concluded. “Offshore wind and marine energy are still in the early stages of development but could make a big contribution to our future energy needs if they get the right support from government. That support includes the delivery of grid connections to the islands, home to the UK’s very best wind, wave and tidal sites.”

Notably, even back in 2010, Scotland had a 2025 target of getting 100% of its electricity from renewables.

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About the Author

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.


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  • Larry

    “Beam me up, Scotty”

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      You have officially been beamed.

  • Henry WA

    What is interesting is the relatively small amount of despatchable gas power used. It doesn’t look as if there were many long windless periods. Of course Scotland does have a ready export market for any excess wind power which allows significant overbuild.

    • David in Bushwick

      Yep. Fill up the North Sea with thousands of 8 MW turbines.

      • Larmion

        Sure. But build some more cheap onshore models first, Scotland still has plenty of potential for them. Pick the low hanging fruit first.

    • Larmion

      Of course, it’s also possible that windless periods are at least partially filled with imports from England – that might work out cheaper than natural gas at certain times. Even net exporters of electricity spend long periods of time as net importers over the course of a year.

      Production statistics are meaningless unless imports and exports are also reported. As an extreme example, a country that imports three quarters of its power and produces the remaining quarter from renewables might label itself as ‘100% renewable’ while in reality being extremely polluting.

      I suspect that the reality is a combination of overbuild and imports, but to what extent I cannot say.

      • David in Bushwick

        This is what I was thinking too but couldn’t verbalize it as well.
        It’s more about renewable energy as a percentage of total energy consumed by a country or state regardless of where the power source is located. Scandinavia is linked by undersea power cables to a variety of adjacent countries with power from fossil and green traded back and forth. California is developing a huge wind project in Wyoming which is a horrible Dirty Coal producer and polluter.
        Will the renewable energy percentage be claimed by both states?

  • Shane 2

    Yawn. When I lived in New Zealand in the 1980s, they were at 70% renewable electric power. They are at around 75% renewable electric power now.

  • Matt

    Can’t wait to read the head line. Renewables produce over X% of Scotland’s electric. Where X is 50, 75, 90.

    • Bob_Wallace

      Or “Scotland’s renewable production is 500% of it’s needs and is sucking vast amounts of cash out of England”.

      Secondary headline –

      “Scotland 100x richer than The Donald and tells him to go get Trumped”.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Indeed! (And when we can say, “Wind energy produces more electricity than all other energy sources.”)

  • JamesWimberley

    Scotland also hosts most of the possible sites in the still (just) United Kingdom for new large pumped storage reservoirs.

    • Will E

      what about EV storage.
      electric mobility is the next thing for Scotland to absorb redundand clean cheap electricity.
      next thing is attract energy intensive industries with clean cheap power
      next thing export to Belgium, that has nuke cracks problems.

      • Larmion

        Exporting to Belgium would be pretty pointless. There is no shortage of power – Germany, the Netherlands and France are all net exporters of power. There’s a need for stronger interconnects with the Netherlands and Germany, but the cost of that is trivial compared to that of stronger interconnects with the UK (itself a net importer anyway).

        Also, a few corrections:

        a) The nuke cracks aren’t really cracks but rather areas where the vessel is weakened and might start cracking if nothing is done about it.
        b) Losing those two reactors isn’t much of a problem – Belgium has already survived without them for the last two years without issue. It’s the loss of a third reactor due to sabotage in the non-nuclear part combined with the retirement of several unprofitable gas power stations that made things a bit precarious. Note that the sabotaged reactor is due to come back online in a month and that new gas capacity is due to come online in a year or so.

        As for cheap electricity: cheaper than the US isn’t going to happen. Besides, electricity prices aren’t that critical – if they mattered all that much, France would be doing great economically.

  • Jan Veselý

    And this is just a beginning.

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