The amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in Scotland has reached a record high. Official data showed there was 26.7 terawatt hours of electricity produced last year from wind, solar, hydro and bioenergy technology. The Scottish government said that meant the equivalent of 74.6 per cent of the gross electricity consumption in the nation could have been provided by renewables last year. That size of output would be enough to power all of the households in Scotland for about two and a half years. The headline figure was an increase of 6.1 per cent, or 1.5 terawatt hours, on the previous record which was set in 2017. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said Scotland provided about 24 per cent of all renewable generation in the UK last year. England was responsible for 66.2 per cent, Wales 6.2 per cent and Northern Ireland 3.6 per cent. The SNP government’s energy strategy has laid out ambitions to have 50 per cent of the energy for Scotland’s electricity, heat and transport needs to be produced through renewable sources by 2030. To meet that target the strategy assumes Scotland’s renewable energy-generating capacity will be 17 gigawatts by then.
Times 29th March 2019 read more »
Scotsman 28th March 2019 read more »
Herald 28th March 2019 read more »
The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 3% in 2018 as pollution from the energy sector continued to decrease, provisional government figures show. Emissions of the gases that drive climate change have fallen for six years in a row, and are 44% below the 1990 baseline for the UK. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are at the lowest level since before the start of the 20th century, when Queen Victoria was still on the throne, government officials said. The fall was mainly due to a 7% reduction in pollution from energy suppliers, as the power sector continued to switch away from coal to low-carbon technology such as renewables. There was also a 3% drop in emissions from transport, which have barely fallen since 1990 and now make up the biggest share of the UK’s climate pollution. Energy data also published on Thursday revealed that renewables accounted for a record third (33%) of electricity generation in 2018, while coal was just 5%, and gas was 39%. Low-carbon generation, which covers renewables and nuclear, rose to a record 53%, the figures show.
Guardian 29th March 2019 read more »
Output from nuclear power stations fell 7% in 2018, while renewable energy continued to go from strength to strength, according to latest figures from the Office of National Statistics.
New Civil Engineer 29th March 2019 read more »
