Scotland ‘on target’ for 100% renewable energy by 2020 – Scotland had been clever in dealing with objectors to wind farms with grants to local communities which allowed them to take an equity share in developments.“There is clear evidence in Scotland that supporting local communities to get involved in – and benefit from – the local energy system enables a range of related social and economic co-benefits.” – Two things here, 1. Scotland is going to have a completely emission free electricity system in less than two and a half years. How cool is that? 2. One of the base emotions of the distributed energy philosophy is that it also distributes the revenue. Germany’s programs – even though they increase the prices of electricity a non-trivial amount – are widely supported because, my gut says, that 50% of the renewable energy is owned by regular people directly. Money fixing a lot of issues.
Electrek 21st Nov 2017 read more »
Brian Wilson: For a few days, the problems of BiFab commanded public attention. It was almost back to the old days, with workers threatening to blockade the yards. The First Minister rushed home to take command. A few heads were knocked together to underwrite the work and laps of honour ensued. End of story? Well, it certainly should not be. What happened with BiFab is only the symptom of a far more serious problem which remains entirely unresolved. It might be called “Whatever happened to Scotland’s Second Industrial Revolution?”. In other words, how on earth have we ended up getting so little economic benefit out of renewable energy? The sad sub-text to the BiFab story is as follows. Scotland, at present, has only one large offshore wind project under construction, though the Beatrice windfarm has a value of £2.6 billion. It has been in gestation for almost 20 years. Yet the only substantial part of that work being carried out in Scotland is a £100 million sub-contract, and we can’t even that get that right.
Scotsman 24th Nov 2017 read more »
