Generating truth

Further to the recent correspondence about renewables ­becoming Scotland’s largest ­single source of electricity and displacing record amounts of CO2 emissions (15 and 16 December), I write to offer some much- needed clarification.

Your readers will be glad to know that the figure of 11.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions displaced by renewable electricity in Scotland is not a “Scottish Renewables calculation”.

Rather, it was published by the Conservative Energy Minister, Amber Rudd MP, in response to a parliamentary question on 24 October.

Further, the figures from the Department of Energy & Climate Change (Decc) which showed renewables have become the number one source of electricity generation in Scotland are ­indeed broken down into different 
technologies.

For instance, Decc’s figures show that in the first six months of 2014 onshore wind provided 6.3 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in Scotland. This compares to the most recent figures for coal and gas with showed they provided 5.6 TWh and 1.4 TWh, ­respectively, in the same period.

While some of the regular contributors to the letters page clearly have different opinions on renewables, it is a matter of fact that renewables in Scotland are now the largest single source of electricity and have displaced a record amount of CO2 
emissions.

Joss Blamire

Scottish Renewables

Bath Street

Glasgow