SNP ‘has no plan’ for meeting 2020 vision of green energy

THE Scottish Government’s flagship policy on renewable energy has come under fresh attack from engineering leaders, who say it is unachieveable.

A damning report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) says there are no “credible strategies” to achieve the target of generating all of Scotland’s electricity from renewables such as wind, wave and solar power by 2020.

It also pours scorn on Alex Salmond’s high-profile claim that 130,000 jobs could be created in the renewable energy industry. The findings were rejected by deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday and the environmental campaigners.

The report follows a warning from financial services giant Citigroup this week that investors should avoid the fledgling Scottish industry amid uncertainty over the constitutional situation.

Labour leader Iain Gray seized on the IME report as he clashed with the Ms Sturgeon during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday, insisting the Scottish Government has “not got a clue” on the key policy.

The SNP administration has set the renewables target in an effort to cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions from traditional electricity generation sources such as coal power stations.

The IME report warns that the policy is not based on any published strategy or engineering analysis of what is actually needed to meet the 2020 target.

Dr Colin Brown, director of engineering at the IME, said: “We have serious concerns that the over-ambitious 2020 target will push up prices and, combined with the government’s distaste for nuclear power, turn Scotland from a net exporter to a net importer of energy.

“Without any clear, workable and engineering-based plan of action, it is doubtful whether these targets are achievable at all. Holyrood needs to draw up a detailed, achievable and public strategy on how they plan to deliver these targets.”

The report warns there are no “reliable official figures” of Scottish, as opposed to UK, energy use and nothing on which to base the percentage targets.

The billions of pounds of investment required by 2020 may increase fuel poverty, the report says.

Perhaps most tellingly, it says that by 2020 electricity is projected to make up just 21 per cent of total Scottish energy consumption. Heat and transport will make up 49 per cent and 30 per cent respectively – and the engineering body calls for more focus on these.

Mr Gray and Tory leader Annabel Goldie pressed Ms Sturgeon on the issue as she stood in for Alex Salmond, who is in the Middle East.

The Labour leader said renewable energy was the SNP’s “key policy for Scotland’s future” but “they have not got a clue about it”. He went on: “Investors say the referendum makes it unsupportable, and separation makes it unaffordable, but the people who actually build the technology on the ground say it is technically undeliverable.”

Mr Gray added: “Last week the First Minister had to apologise for misleading parliament, but isn’t he misleading Scotland on energy every single day of every single week?”

Ms Sturgeon hit back and highlighted the “massive renewables investment currently under way” from companies such as electronics firm Mitsubishi, Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa and Korean firm Doosan Power Systems.

She said: “£750 million of new renewable electricity projects began generating in Scotland in the last 12 months”, adding: “There’s a pipeline of 17 gigawatts of renewable electricity projects, a total estimated capital investment of £46 billion, ready to create thousands of new jobs for Scotland.”

Miss Goldie said the Citigroup report highlighted the need for an annual subsidy of £4bn in an independent Scotland.

This would push annual household bills up by about £900, she warned.

But Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “There are more than enough projects in operation and in the pipeline to hit the 100 per cent target.

“It really is this simple: if we build enough generation capacity, we will get there.”

Francis Stuart, Friends of the Earth Scotland policy officer, said the IME report jumps to “ill-founded conclusions” on the achievability of Scotland’s renewable targets.

“The Scottish Government’s target of 100 per cent renewables by 2020 is completely achievable,” he said.

“Research by the world’s leading renewable energy consultants, Garrad Hassan, has shown that renewables could provide 185 per cent of Scotland’s electricity needs by 2030, surpassing 100 per cent by 2020, and providing significant export revenue and creating thousands of jobs in the process.

“It isn’t renewable targets but the rocketing price of gas that is to blame for recent price hikes. The ‘Big Six’ utility companies are making millions rigging the energy market in favour of themselves and continued investment in fossil fuels.

“Renewables are the only genuinely sustainable solution to our energy problems.”