Renewables Are Now Scotland's Biggest Energy Source

AmiMoJo writes Government figures revealed that Scotland is now generating more power from "clean" technologies than nuclear, coal and gas. The combination of wind, solar and hydroelectric, along with less-publicized sources such as landfill gas and biomass, produced 10.3TWh in the first half of 2014. Over the same period, Scotland generated 7.8TWh from nuclear, 5.6TWh from coal and 1.4TWh from gas, according to figures supplied by National Grid. Renewable sources tend to fluctuate throughout the year, especially in Scotland where the weather is notoriously volatile, but in six-month chunks the country has consistently increased its renewable output.

Comments

Reading and comprehension

[Thanshin]

Hence the absence of the word "combined".

Re:Reading and comprehension

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Scotland is producing more from renewable energy combined than all the fossil fuel based sources combined, which is the importent bit really.

Re:Nuclear is Clean

[Njorthbiatr]

Unfortunately no, they did the opposite of the safe thing and extended the life of old reactors and increased the output.

But just because they're being all twisted and stupid about it doesn't mean they have their head up their ass. They clearly see the benefit in investing in nuclear infrastructure. They have eight new reactors being built that are set to be completed all within the next two years. Probably plans for more on the way. It's a very aggressive strategy, and I'd imagine after the new ones are online the old ones are going to be decommissioned.

decentralisation of energy supply

[rapiddescent]

One of the biggest challenges on Scotland has been the decentralisation of energy supply. The grid (high voltage power lines) was built to connect power stations that were usually less than 30 miles from cities and then smaller grid segments out to the less densely populated areas such as the highlands & islands.

The challenge Scotland now faces is that a large amount of renewable energy is being produced in the highlands and islands and coastal projects resulting in power having to be shipped "the other way" through the grid. So Scotland has had an enormous new power line from Beauly in the north to Denny in central region to help. The scandal is that a lot of Scotland's renewable energy is idle or switched off because there is not enough capacity in the grid to use it until the new line comes on board. Nearly every loch in Argyll has some kind of hydro power generation capabuility but it is switched off (except Cruachan)

The new wave power production systems are fabulous, especially the inter-connected wavenet squid system.

Re:It will never work

[AmiMoJo]

Scotland gets a lot of income from North Sea oil, but that is eventually going to run out. That is why they are investing in renewable energy now. When the oil is gone they will be exporting their wind power, which geography has blessed them with.

The cost isn't that high, relative to other sources. Coal's costs are mostly external and somewhat hidden. Nuclear in the UK is a disaster. The old plants built by the government couldn't be given away, we had to pay people to take them. Recently they have been trying to build new ones, but no-one is interested. In the end only EDF agreed to build one if we paid them double for the energy it generates, guaranteed for the life of the plant, and if it is built by a Chinese company at rock bottom prices.