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Half of Scotland's Energy Consumption Came From Renewables Last Year (heraldscotland.com)

Posted by msmash on from the paving-way-for-a-brighter-future dept.

An anonymous reader quotes an article on Herald Scotland: Scotland has met a key target for renewable energy consumption, according to official figures. Statistics published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change show 57.7% of Scottish electricity consumption came from renewables in 2015 -- 7.7% ahead of the 50% target. The SNP welcomed the figures and pledged to bring forward plans to go further if re-elected in May. Deputy First Minister and SNP campaign director John Swinney said: "The SNP have long championed green energy and these new figures show the huge progress we have made - but we are determined to go even further.

7 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong title by MarcDuflot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Half of Scotland's ELECTRICITY Consumption Came From Renewables Last Year

    1. Re:Wrong title by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not true - hydro is only really used as giant batteries for sudden ramp up and ramp down of electricity demand. Most of it is wind. Wave and tidal power play a fair role too though.

    2. Re:Wrong title by Vihai · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't know about Scotland but hydroelectric is so much effective that usually is saturated already and it's not part of the debate about how to generate THE REST of the energy.

  2. Wikipedia has details on this by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 2, Informative

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Wind, wave and tide make up more than 80% of Scotland's renewable energy. They are considering nuclear as renewable in the 57% figure.

    --
    That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
  3. Another link by tomhath · · Score: 3, Informative

    As already pointed out, the 57% number is electricity, not energy. I suspect they burn a lot of natural gas for heat since they have the North Sea fields. Graphs here indicate that about 3/4 comes from wind, about 1/4 from hydro. Other sources are negligible (obviously Scotland is too far north and too cloudy for PV).

  4. Re:All Energy Is Renewable by Vihai · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, thermodynamics tells that ALL the energy is not renewable... entropy and stuff...

  5. Mostly wind by XXongo · · Score: 4, Informative

    And most of those renewables is hydro....

    No, as it turns out, most of those renewables are wind.

    Here are some earlier articles that give a bit more information:
    http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/wind-power-providing-almost-half-of-scotland-s-energy-supply-1-4023886
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-35160271
    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c4ef7ed8-a8c8-11e5-843e-626928909745.html