Scotland's power to be 100 pct generated from renewables by 2020

Mar 28, 2013 - Xinhua - china.org.cn

The Scottish Government on Thursday said it aimed to meet the equivalent of 100 percent of gross annual electricity demand from renewables by 2020.

The amount of renewable electricity generated in 2012 rose almost 7 percent on 2011 to more than 14,600 Gigawatt hours (GWh), and the total renewable generation in Scotland is enough to power the equivalent of every home in Scotland, statistics published on Thursday showed.

This will mean that the equivalent of almost 39 percent of Scotland's total electricity needs came from renewables in 2012 with electricity demand last year assumed to be similar to 2011. The Scottish Government aims to improve that percentage to 50 percent by 2015 and 100 percent by 2020, said a government press release.

The data also showed that electricity generated via wind power in 2012 was at a record high level of 8,296 GWh, up 19 percent from 2011 and is more than four times the level of wind generation in 2006, while Scottish renewable generation made up approximately 35 percent of total UK renewable generation in 2012.

At the end of 2012, there was 5,883 Megawatt (MW) of installed renewable electricity capacity in Scotland, an increase of 22 percent (1,041 MW) from the end of 2011, according to the statistics.

Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing hailed the new figures, noting that 2012 was another record year for renewables in Scotland, which contributed more than a third of the entire Britain's renewables output.

Scotland's renewables sector has a projected investment of 9.4 billion pounds (14.23 billion U.S. dollars), according to figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in July 2012. Industry figures published last year estimate that renewable energy supports over 11,000 jobs in Scotland. Endi