This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Potential for energy self-sufficiency
10/12/2001
Scotland has the capacity to be self-sufficient in
electricity from renewable energy and have plenty left over
for the rest of the UK, it was confirmed today.
Environment and Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie
was speaking in Castle Douglas at the opening of the Green
House, the new offices of renewable energy developer,
Natural Power.
The findings of a renewables resource study,
commissioned by the Executive, show that Scotland has a
potential renewable energy resource in excess of 60
gigawatts (GW). A great majority of this is made up of
wind, both onshore and offshore, as well as wave and tidal
energy.
Mr Finnie said:
"This hugely significant study outlines the breathtaking
scale of Scotland's renewable energy potential and
vindicates our strongly held belief that we are ideally
placed to benefit from the sustainable energy
revolution.
"The scale of this potential is
illustrated by one stunning statistic: there is enough
potential energy from onshore wind power alone to meet
Scotland's peak winter demand for electricity twice over.
In all, the total resource amounts to 75% of the total UK
existing generating capacity.
Mr Finnie also announced the publication of a second
study examining the Scottish electricity grid. This study
confirms that there is enough capacity available at present
to allow the Executive's targets for renewable energy to be
met.
Welcoming the opening of the Green House, Mr Finnie
added:
"Natural Power are to be congratulated for the
creativity and innovation which we can all see here today.
I urge the rest of the Scottish renewables industry to step
out of the shadows and join the mainstream of energy
production.
The renewable study by consultants Garrad Hassan has
identified the magnitude of the potential renewable energy
resource across Scotland to 2020. The study used up-to-date
information on each resource, and modelled it against
economic, environmental, planning and technical
constraints. The study indicates that nearly 60GW of new
renewable energy generating capacity could be available in
and offshore Scotland at under 7p per unit in 2010
(including connection costs but not grid strengthening
costs), as shown in the table below. For comparison, the
total UK installed generation capacity is around 80GW,
while the total amount of electricity supplied in a year is
around 390TWh.
Technology Generation Energy
(TWh)
Offshore Wind 25 80
Wave Energy 14 50
Onshore Wind 11.5 45
Tidal
stream 7.5 33.5
Agricultural
wastes 0.4 3.5
Small
hydro 0.3 1
Energy
Crops 0.14 1.1
Forestry Residues 0.09 0.7
Total 59.1 216
The grid study, also commissioned by the Executive, was
carried out by the network owners, ScottishPower and
Scottish and Southern Energy, with some input from
Strathclyde University. It shows that the network can
connect around 1GW of new capacity without upgrades. This
is more than enough to satisfy the Executive's target for
renewables of 18% by 2010. The cost of upgrades required to
increase the capacity available is under £200m.
The Renewables Obligation (Scotland), the Executive's
new policy instrument for increasing renewable energy
production, will come into force in April 2002.
The Green House is on the Forrest Estate in Castle
Douglas. The estate, owned by Norwegian shipping group Fred
Olsen Ltd, has three small hydro generating plants, with
plans to install a biomass generator in the near future.
The offices, powered by this locally generated renewable
electricity, consume 30% of the energy of a standard
building of similar size.