Niall Stuart: Europe’s windiest country is blessed with limitless energy potential

SCOTLAND has the resources for renewable energy and is officially Europe’s windiest country. Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s wind energy and tidal energy, as well as 10 per cent of the continent’s wave energy.

We have the best renewable resources of any country in Europe and have 25 per cent of the continent’s wind energy, 25 per cent of its tidal power and 10 per cent of all wave power.

There is also the political commitment, as the Scottish Government has set some of the most ambitious targets for the sector, including for renewables to generate 100 per cent of the country’s power needs by 2020.

That commitment gives investors greater certainty and is one of the reasons for companies like Gamesa setting up their research and development and future manufacturing facilities here in Scotland.

Many of the companies in the oil and gas sector are ideally placed to provide the infrastructure and services that are required from emerging projects in the wind, wave and tidal sector.

The wave and tidal industry is still in the very early stages of development, and these figures show the large sums of money being invested and again the potential for companies with expertise working offshore to be part of this exciting new industry.

• Niall Stuart is chief executive of Scottish Renewables.