Yorkshire tops UK’s £6.9 billion renewable investment league

Yorkshire has topped the UK renewable investment league for the period between April 1, 2011 to 31 March 2012. The UK’s largest county invested almost two billion pounds in renewable energy, creating over 5,400 in the process.    

Scotland finished just behind Yorkshire; investing £1.7 billion in renewables. Currently, almost a fifth of all energy generated in Scotland is from renewable sources. Renewable energy has long been championed by the nation, with the Scottish Government committing to slashing its emissions by 80 percent before 2050 and holding the extremely ambitious target of generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Accompanying the announcement, the Department of Energy and Climate Change stated that: “In addition to increasing our energy security and reducing our emissions, renewable energy is bringing real jobs and investment to the UK.

“From manufacturing, to construction, engineering and operations; to biomass feedstock handling companies to environmental consultancies – there are a huge range of examples of growth in renewable energy creating opportunities across the sectors.”

In total the UK invested £6.9 billion in renewables across 2011-12. The resulting investments resulted in the employment of over 20,848 jobs across the UK.

The full range of regional data can be seen in the table below: