Analysis: We’d be crazy not to exploit Scotland’s natural advantages

RENEWABLE energy has a bright future in Scotland, if we can get on with it instead of arguing.

Even those opponents of wind farms who made submissions to the current parliamentary inquiry mostly agree the target of meeting all of Scotland’s domestic electricity needs from renewable energy by 2020 is possible.

Scotland has huge natural advantages when it comes to strong winds, large waves and big tides. We would be crazy not to exploit this bonanza, or wait so long that we just buy someone else’s technology instead of developing our own.

A 100 per cent renewable energy future is not only possible, it is essential if we are to reduce our climate emissions. And that future could see many tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland, huge export earnings and a new direction for our offshore sector as oil runs low.

Every EU country already has renewable energy targets, with more in the pipeline, and the UK’s own plans rely on plenty of renewable electricity coming from Scotland.

Construction is about to begin on an additional interconnector cable to England down the west coast. England and France are already connected, and there are live discussions of a Scotland-Norway cable. These super-grid connections will let Scotland export renewable electricity.

Recent price rises in household bills have been almost all down to the rising cost of gas, with the windiest wind farms now able to produce electricity as cheaply as conventional power plants. Offshore wind, wave and tidal energy need support through the R&D phase but have huge potential to generate energy, save carbon and create income and jobs in Scotland.

Some suggest that shale gas will be the cheap fuel of the future, especially the companies who want to extract it. British Geological Survey’s work suggests there is much less there than the companies claim, so it will not be cheap and it certainly won’t be low carbon.

We could repeat the failure of the 1970s, when we squandered our lead in wind power technology, or we could build on our current strengths and make sure Scotland’s energy future is in renewables.

• Dr Richard Dixon is director of WWF Scotland.