The determination of the Scottish Government to resume with its goal to produce 100% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and thus continue developing wind power received severe criticism for being inefficient and outdated way of generating power, the Scotsman reports.
Namely, the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee of the Scottish Parliament is holding an inquiry on renewable energy in order to scrutinize the aspects of the goal realization.
According to Professor Jane Bower, if Scotland wants to avoid Danish scenario and have to export power bellow price, the country should focus instead on exploitation of shale gas. Recently, large reserves of shale gas have been found in England, therefore there is a high probability that the same could be done in Scotland.
Referring to the American example and the revolution that shale gas brought to the US, Professor Bower said that “replacing coal-fired with gas-fired is an easy way to halve CO2 emissions”.
“There is now a real possibility that Scotland may become independent. Why would an independent England (or any other country) buy expensive Scottish wind power when it could generate much cheaper electricity using shale gas, or import cheap nuclear from France?” she said.
Despite the fear that the mass production of wind energy might result in a surplus of energy and lack of customers to purchase it, due to its high price, environmentalists raise concern on the proven impact of shale gas exploration. That is to say, the process might be environmentally damaging, due to emission of considerable level of the greenhouse gas methane.
This is also confirmed by chief executive of Scottish Renewables Niall Stuart , who stated that this would mean: “simply sticking our heads in the sand and failing to face up to the economic, environmental and moral imperative to reduce our carbon emissions and tackle climate change.”
The claims have been refuted as well by a spokesman for Scottish Enterprise, who sees wind power development as a means of transforming Scottish economy having in mind that it will bring around 28,000 jobs and generate over £7 billion by 2020.
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Offshore WIND staff, April 12, 2012