Scottish renewables need £10bn by 2020

Scottish renewables need £10bn by 2020
09 December 2008














Scottish renewables need £10bn by 2020 An investment of £10 billion is needed for Scotland to meet its renewable electricity targets, which a report claims is achievable.

The Scottish Council for Development and Industry's (SCDI) report claims that Scotland can generate 50 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2020 and continue exporting to England and Northern Ireland.

Meeting that target will require the installation of 450 megawatts of new wind power a year until 2020, according to research consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Of the renewable energy that will be added by the deadline, wind power will account for 80 per cent, while marine, biomass and hydro will grow at one tenth of new wind.

Iain Duff, SCDI's chief economist, said: "With £10 billion of investment in new generation over the next twelve years, there is a real opportunity for Scotland to lead the global renewables industry. We now have to make sure that Scotland's businesses are ready to win a significant amount of the design, manufacture and construction renewable generation."

"To do that we need to build a stronger Scottish supply chain to the renewable industry, and deliver the skills that the industry needs."

The Committee for Climate Change's Building a Low Carbon Economy report claimed that wind power could deliver 30 per cent of the UK's electricity supply by 2020.

http://www.scdi.org.uk/mg/pr/PR091208.pdf