SNP ministers have been issued a “wake-up call” after it was revealed the Scottish Government has not even reached the halfway point of its own renewable energy targets.
A headline target in Scotland’s energy strategy, published in 2017 is for 50% of Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity use to be generated from renewable sources by 2030.
Almost all of electricity consumption in Scotland comes from renewables – but transport and heat generation sourced from renewables has stuttered.
Despite the sluggish progress, ministers are expected to bring forward even more ambitious targets in a renewed energy strategy, set to be published next year with Scotland having committed to becoming net zero by 2045.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Secretary, Michael Matheson, has confirmed that against the 50% target, “the provisional figures for 2019”, the latest available, “indicate that the equivalent of 24% of total Scottish energy consumption came from renewable sources”.
He added: “The Scottish Government intends to publish a draft refresh of the 2017 Scottish energy strategy in spring 2022, and we will be reviewing this target as part of this wider piece of work.”
The Scottish Conservatives have called for a renewed energy strategy to be drawn up as a priority, rather than wait until next year.
Scottish Conservative shadow energy and net-zero secretary, Liam Kerr, said: “SNP ministers like to talk a good game when it comes to renewable energy but these figures lay bare an overwhelming failure to hit their own targets.
“To not even be close to ensuring half of our energy comes from renewable sources is a truly dreadful record on the SNP’s watch.
“They have completely failed to back up their warm words with decisive action. The need for urgent measures to promote renewable energy is now, not in Spring 2022.
“The SNP’s Net Zero Secretary must use these figures as a wake-up call to prioritise delivering a much more ambitious renewable energy strategy as quickly as possible, rather than kicking it into the long grass until next year.”
Energy companies have set out their plans to help the transformation of transport and heating networks to renewable sources through sustainable electricity.
Scottish Power Energy Networks has drawn up plans to spend £1.58 billion in central and southern Scotland between 2023 and 2028. The proposals would enable 370,000 electric vehicles and 210,000 domestic heat pumps to be connected over the five-year period.
READ MORE: £1.5bn investment to prepare Scotland's electricity networks for net zero
SSE has also proposed £1.4 billion of investment north of the central belt and islands from 2023 to 2028 including £290 million to support an extra 170,000 electric vehicles and more than 200,000 heat pumps and upgrade the energy resilience of island communities by replacing or upgrading 16 subsea cables.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The decarbonisation of the electricity sector has been a major success of Scotland’s energy policy over the past decade. Provisional figures indicate that renewables provided the equivalent of 96% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption in 2020, with proposals for a further 14 GW of renewables capacity currently in planning.
“We need a healthy renewable electricity pipeline in order to help decarbonise the energy that we use to heat our homes and power our vehicles – either through the electricity directly, or by using it to produce green hydrogen. This will mean that we need considerably more onshore and offshore wind, as well as hydro, solar and the development of our tidal power potential.
READ MORE: SNP's energy targets at risk by Scottish grid 'premium' charges
“Our updated climate change plan sets us on the pathway to meet Scotland’s emissions reduction targets up to 2032 and steer our just transition to reach net zero by 2045. The package includes over 100 new policies and proposals and presents the most up to date plans for emissions reduction effort for all sectors. It will see electricity emissions fall to zero by 2030.
“The challenge to meet our incredibly stretching emissions reduction targets – across not just the electricity sector, but every corner of our economy and society – cannot be underestimated. We are currently developing our refreshed energy strategy which will reflect our net-zero ambitions and will publish a draft of this strategy in spring 2022.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel