Scotland Leads the Way on Renewable Energy Delivery

Scotland’s delivery of devolution and renewable energy development should be a model for other UK Governments to follow, according to a recent study by Robert Gordon University (RGU).

The newly published study has shown that Scotland leads the way in renewables deployment across the UK and that independence is a driving force in the growth of the renewables sector.

The study is the findings of a two-year research project undertaken by RGU, Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast and Birmingham University. They examined how far the devolved Governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have pursued different strategies for renewable energy, made different use of the policy instruments and whether they have had any effect on the rates and direction of renewables deployment.

The report – entitled Promoting Renewable Energy in the UK: What difference has devolution made? – identified the role of the Scottish Government in ensuring the establishment of commercialisation and testing facilities in Scotland for renewables.

The only Scottish university involved in the collaborative project, RGU, recently held a seminar to critically assess how Scotland had performed in relation to renewables deployment compared to the other UK administrations.

The seminar was led by RGU’s Professor Peter Strachan who is the Strategy and Policy Group Lead within the Department of Management and a senior member of the Business & Enterprise research group within the Institute for Management Governance and Society (IMaGeS) and has published several books and journal articles on his expert subject of energy policy and international wind power deployment.

The seminar addressed the question: To what extent has devolution been a boon for renewable energy, hindrance or indeed has it been irrelevant?

Presentations were made by Professor Strachan and other leading experts from academia, business and local government. They considered how the powers available to Scotland have intersected with the political and policy strategies deployed the institutional inheritances and the way in which successive Scottish Government’s have managed the interactions with Westminster, developers and wider civil society.

The seminar concluded that Scotland is leading the way and devolution has coincided with the deployment of large amounts of installed renewables capacity across the UK. Compared to the other devolved administrations unique political and institutional conditions have enabled Scotland to become the leading player in the renewables sector. In particular, Scotland has offered the long term and consistent political and business support, with renewables seen as an important ‘motor’ for economic growth. The Scottish Government’s anti-nuclear ‘new’ build stance has also played a critical role.

Professor Strachan revealed that much of the growth has come from onshore wind power, which grew ten-fold from 308MW in 2003 to 3016MW by 2011, but this growth has not come without its own challenges in the planning and consenting environment. He questioned if the UK Government was doing enough to promote community owned renewables and outlined that Scotland had been the only devolved administration to set a target of 500MW of installed renewables energy capacity.

Professor Strachan commented: “Unlike England and the other devolved administrations, Scotland now has set a target of 500MW of community owned renewables and as I outlined in my submission to the Scottish Government Inquiry into the achievement of their 2020 renewables targets, a higher target should now be set to ensure there is stronger social engagement in the sustainable energy transition.

“Scotland has made much progress but it can also look to other renewable energy mentors – in particular Denmark and Germany – and much still can be learned from them – particularly the role feed-in tariffs have played in the massive expansion of renewables in these countries.”

The seminar was the first in a series of dissemination events to support the launch of the report. Others have been held in Northern Ireland and Wales.

The Energy Minister for Scotland Fergus Ewing said: “This underlines the importance of the flexibility which Scotland has over energy policy and the effective use to which that flexibility has been put since devolution.

“We have astounding green energy potential and vast natural resources with about a quarter of Europe’s wind and tidal energy and 10% of its wave power. Windfarms and other forms of clean energy create opportunities for communities across Scotland, enhance energy security and are already delivering jobs and investment and the Scottish Government is determined to ensure communities all over Scotland reap the benefit from renewable energy.”

The report has been welcomed by the SNP.

Chic Brodie, MSP, a member of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, said: “The findings of this report are significant, not only in that they show how devolution has allowed Scotland to utilise her own vast natural resources but also how the campaign towards independence is a driving force in the industry’s growth.

“The Scottish Government is already committed to producing the equivalent of 100% of our electricity needs from renewables by 2020.”

Running from January 2011 to January 2013, the report drew on more than 80 interviews with senior figures in government, politicians and officers, energy companies and trade associations, and non-governmental organisations, supported by the analysis of policy and planning documents.

Prof Strachan added: “Scotland has shown the high level of cohesion between top-level politicians, officers and business required to make the UK energy pathway work. Such cohesion around the direction of renewable energy development has been harder to find in the rest of the UK, making progress more uncertain.” 

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Press release, February 6, 2013; Image: BVG