Yet again trumping England’s green energy efforts the Scottish Government has today unveiled plans to supply at least 30% of the country’s energy from renewable electricity, heat and transport by 2020. This new goal exceeds the EU’s 2020 renewable energy target of 20% and will be double the UK’s agreed EU target of 15%.
Scottish energy, enterprise and tourism minister Fergus Ewing’s new energy roadmap sets a new target to deliver 500MW of community and locally owned renewable energy by 2020, outlining the country’s commitment to develop strategies for microgeneration and agri-renewables.
Ewing also announced plans to establish a Scottish Renewables Advisory Themed Group to provide expert advice from industry and other stakeholders on how to achieve Scotland’s full renewable energy potential. The group will be co-chaired by the minister and Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables.
“More than 40,000 jobs could be created in this rapidly expanding industry and some of the biggest names in energy have already chosen to expand their operations in Scotland, including Mitsubishi Power Systems, Gamesa and Dossan Babcock,” said Ewing.
“It is essential we continue to move quickly to develop the necessary infrastructure and skills required to attract more international investment and green energy jobs to our communities,” he continued.
Only last month the new Scottish Government exceeded all expectations and increased its renewable energy target to 100% of electricity demand from renewables and 11% of heat from renewables by 2020.
