Scottish Executive to provide GBP20 million more for renewables

Scottish Executive to provide GBP20 million more for renewables

London (Platts)--24May2006

Scotland's devolved government, the Scottish Executive, is to provide a
further GBP20 million ($37.6 million) in funding for renewable energy
projects, deputy first minister Nicol Stephen said Wednesday.
"We've already invested GBP100 million in the last three years, but today
I can announce GBP20 million extra for Scottish renewables over the next two
years," Stephen said at the All Energy conference in Aberdeen.
Stephen said the GBP20 million would break down into GBP7.5 million for
biomass, where studies have identified a potential of 500 MW in Scotland, GBP8
million for new marine energy development and GBP1.5 million for hydrogen. The
remaining GBP3 million would be made available in grants for householders or
small businesses installing renewable micro generation technology like micro
wind turbines or solar panels.
"We aim to double the installation of renewables by householders and on
other buildings. If the cash runs out again it will be a symbol of our
success, and I'm determined to provide more," he said.
On marine energy, Stephen said he wanted to see Scottish marine energy
technology deployed in Scottish waters. While there are some grid connected
wave and tidal generators in Scotland, so far the only commercial deployment
of Scottish marine energy technology has been in Portugal.
"It's great to see that the Pelamis (wave power technology) was bought by
Portugal, but we want to see it off the coast of Scotland as soon as
possible."
Stephen said that he still felt that Scotland's target to get 40% of
electricity from renewables was "ambitious" but he said he agreed with
renewable industry advocates who want Scotland to push even harder
"We've hit 16% already, so 40% is not in any way a cap," he said, adding
that Scotland wanted to exceed its share of overall UK carbon dioxide
reductions.
"We're aiming for 2.7 million mt of CO2 savings instead of 1.7 million
that would be our share of the 15 million mt UK target."
But Stephen said that in return he would lobby at the UK level for grid
upgrades and for changes to the transmission charging regime given that it
could discriminate against renewable power production in Scotland, especially
in the remoter Highlands and Islands region.
"The Transmission charging regime has its focus on cutting losses, but
this only makes sense (in the current market) where we are using fossil fuels.
It makes more sense to export renewable energy from Scotland (to England and
Wales) than to burn coal from Chile or gas from the far side of Ukraine," he
said.
Nicol Stephen is the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who are
junior partners in the coalition government. As well as being deputy first
minister, he is minister for enterprise and lifelong learning.

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