Brian Wilson: This is deceitful and does nothing to resolve the big issues currently facing renewable energy

THE best means of measuring the significance of Doosan’s decision not to proceed with its offshore wind facility at Renfrew is surely to refer back to the Scottish Government press release of March last year.

Then it was trumpeted by Alex Salmond that “up to 1,700 new jobs” would follow as a result of “another great stride for renewables in Scotland”.

It is beyond me how any politician can justify blessing a project in such grand terms – and then concealing the disappointing news that it is not going to happen. As soon as Salmond knew in December that Doosan were not going to proceed, he had an absolute obligation to make that information public. Instead, he continued to use Doosan’s name in support of the dubious claim that the world’s investors are flocking to Scotland in support of his renewables rhetoric.

But apart from the deceit of concealment, there is a very serious truth at the heart of Doosan’s decision – which is that extensive development of offshore wind is far from certain because of the huge question marks that attend it, cost of installation and maintenance among them. Everybody in the industry knows this to be the unspoken truth. Similarly, there are huge questions about whether wave and tidal will deliver anything of significance within the 2020 timescale set by the Scottish Government. In other words, no assumptions can be made about what “offshore” renewables will contribute and it is a deception to pretend otherwise.

Yet that is why the Scottish Government refuses to break down its “100 per cent” target by sub-sector, since the reality which would emerge is that the target is almost wholly reliant on what will happen onshore – ie, wind farms.

Over the past decade, Scotland has moved from around 13 per cent renewables – made up almost entirely of hydro – to around one-third, almost entirely due to onshore wind. That is by no means universally popular but, for most people in Scotland, still acceptable. However, if the truth is that the next two-thirds is also to come overwhelmingly from onshore wind, then the scale of development involved is bound to be hugely controversial.

As a long-standing supporter of renewable energy, I have argued excessive target-setting is the enemy of progress, rather than its ally. The 100 per cent target by 2020, with its huge dependence on onshore wind, creates hostages to fortune for the whole renewables sector, which cannot be wished away by burying bad news.

• Brian Wilson is a former Labour energy minister.