With expanses of windy highlands distant from population centers, Scotland has become a center of the U.K.’s wind energy industry. The government both north of the border and in London is encouraging turbine developments there both onshore and offshore. Wind turbines stand on the hillside beyond residential properties lining the beachfront. Of the 34 billion pounds of investment planned in large-scale renewable power projects from January 2012 to February 2014, about 14 billion of that was to be sited in Scotland, according to data from the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change. It estimates the industry supports about 12,000 jobs. Those projects get funded through subsidies run by the government in London. Of the 2 billion pounds of support paid through the Renewables Obligation in the fiscal year ended in 2013, Scotland received 560 million pounds. That represents as much as 28 percent of the total U.K. funding. Scotland itself accounts for about 10 percent of electricity sales in the U.K., according to government estimates. Renewable energy supplies almost half of Scotland’s electricity, and the government is targeting for that level to reach 100 percent by 2020. About 34 percent of the U.K.’s renewable electricity capacity was located in Scotland at the end of 2013..bloom
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 21:37:29 +0000