NICOL Stephen yesterday laid out "deliberately bold" plans to make all of Scotland's electricity supplies come from renewable sources by the middle of this century The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader insisted Scotland would meet its 40per cent renewable target by 2020, and added of the 100per cent goal: "Big things can happen in 45 years if there's the will to make it happen.

"So what is my ambition for Scotland in 2050? I say renewable energy supplying 100per cent of Scotland's electricity. 100per cent: that sounds bold.

"It is deliberately bold. It can happen but people - and politicians - need to make it happen.

Mr Stephen said Scottish Renewables, the industry forum in Scotland, suggested that 34 terawatt-hours of power could come from renewables by 2050. "This almost exactly matches current Scottish electricity demand, " he said.

The 100per cent total would come from a mix of onshore wind, offshore wind, wave, and tidal power. "Marine powerwill help us go beyond our 2020 targets. The Scottish company Ocean Power Delivery already have their Pelamis machine 'in the water' in Portugal and more tests are under way in Orkney.

"Talisman and Scottish & Southern have the potential to move from their two demonstrators to a full-scale operation offshore. And Airtricity have published proposals for a giant offshore wind network in the North Sea with a capacity of 10 gigawatt-hours, which alone could plug that gap between 2020 and 2050. It shows the scale of the potential."

Mr Stephen said other companies also had big plans "that can be made to happen if we want them to happen. Almost straight away we will need to invest in decentralised energy systems. This means combined heat and power." He said it was the job of government to ensure by 2050 that:

Euro Electricity had been decentralised;

Euro There was microgeneration in every building;

Euro Marine power had become a reality;

Euro There was North Sea windpower offshore;

Euro The national grid had been changed to allow offshore and island generation;

Euro It was all supported by costeffective storage technologies, including biofuels, hydrogen, hydro-pumped storage, and large-scale batteries.

"Renewable energy will give us the green switch we have got to make to give us safe, secure, affordable electricity in the 21st century, " he said.

Senior Liberal Democrats believe Mr Stephen stands a realistic chance of becoming First Minister at the Scottish Parliament elections in May next year. Federal party chiefs think disillusionment with Labour and disenchantment with the SNP opens the prospect that the LibDems could end up the largest party at Holyrood.

Lord Rennard, LibDem chief executive and the mastermind behind the party's by-election victory in Dunfermline and West Fife, insisted such a scenario was possible.

He said successful elections were all about building momentum and argued that if the polls were currently showing Labour and the SNP in the high 20s, and the LibDems were in the low 20s, then there was everything to play for at Holyrood.

"Labour is in decline, " he said. "I think there will be a backlash against Labour in London. The SNP is not so relevant now. Having got a Scottish Parliament, people don't want independence. The LibDems are the challengers.

"There is no reason why we couldn't be the biggest party with Nicol Stephen as First Minister. Our record since 1999 is very good. We have delivered a lot - free student tuition fees, free long-term care for the elderly. We could do a lot more if we were the biggest party."