The biggest issue facing humanity is global warming. The transition from fossil fuels to renewables is the top priority for the world, yet some national governments are not acting in accordance with the situation. Scotland currently produces the most renewable energy per capita among the British nations. To many observers though, it seems like Scotland is receiving only piecemealsupport from Westminster in its energy transition, which leaves the question open: Is the UK government preventing Scotland from reaching its full potential?
Scotland “has the potential to become a green energy powerhouse, creating up to 385,000 jobs, boosting Scotland’s economy by up to £34billion a year by 2050 and lowering energy bills permanently.” – David Skilling
Landfall Strategy Group
Scotland is part of the UK gas and electricity marketplace, and the gas and electric grids are integrated with the grids in England and Wales.
Grids are owned by investor-owned utilities. They are regulated by UK energy regulator Ofgem.
Most of the electric infrastructure in Scotland is still owned by vertically integrated utilities, operating each sector (generation, transmission, and distribution) as separate companies.
While planning has been devolved to the Scottish government – allowing it to control approval of new power plants and transmission lines – regulation andstrategic planning, including targeting incentives for private investment is set at the U.K. level.
An example of how this works can be seen in the recent, Scottish government approved, plans to expand Argyll’s Hollow Mountain underground power station. ‘Renewable power developer Drax proposes building a new £500m pumped hydro storage plant at its existing Cruachan facility near Oban. The company said the extension could be operational in 2030 and support 1,000 jobs during its construction. But before it can go ahead, the project needs new UK government policy that would support private investment. Developers of pumped storage hydro schemes argue that the current UK energy market does not have the mechanisms to make such major projects attractive to investors.’ (BBC)
Scotland typically exports about 30% of its generation to the English grid but does depend on England for power on very rare days where there is insufficient renewables power generation to cover Scottish loads.
The UK government legislated to have retail gas and electric supply open to full competition and all customers shop around for the best prices from retail marketers. Though most of the 40 companies active in Scotland have since went bankrupt affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers and has failed to bring prices down.
A controversial transmission line (impact on the affected areas vs providing green energy to tackle global warming), the Beauly-Denny 400 kV line from northwest Scotland to near Edinburgh was completed in 2015 to carry renewable power from the windy Highlands to the population centre.
A new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line was proposed, with EU support, from Norway to eastern Scotland to tie Scotland into the greater European electricity marketplace. The UK National Grid went for a longer Norwegian link to Eastern England.
Could progress be faster? ‘With the total now over 14GW, the sector is over four times bigger than it was at the end of 2008. Onshore wind is the biggest single technology, accounting for 66% of installed capacity, increasing by 325MW in the last quarter alone (2020). Offshore wind, hydro and solar photovoltaics are Scotland’s other major sources of renewable power.’ (Scottish Renewables)
Scottish Renewables
Tory MP, Zac Goldsmithresigned as a government minister, accusing ‘slow progress’ Rishi Sunak of being “uninterested” in the environment
HELD BACK
In 2021, the UK government rescinded funding for the Scottish Acorn project, the world’s first gas-fired carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility – originally backed up by a £100 million UK government investment — which would have captured emissions from Grangemouth, St. Fergus, and a new power station at Peterhead.
Observers have also pointed to the higher cost of operating renewable energy generators in Scotland, due to fees imposed by the UK energy regulator Ofgem, as one method by which the Union hinders Scotland’s progress towards its sustainable energy goals.
Scottish generators pay the highest rates in Europe to connect to the grid: £7.36 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in the north of Scotland and £4.70 per MWh in the south. In England and Wales, this costs £0.49, and in southern England generators are paid to connect to the grid.
Scottish Renewables notes that the Westminster system alone “makes Scottish offshore wind farms 20% more expensive than those in English waters.”
The methodology behind these different rates was set for England and Wales in 1992 by the Tories, following the privatisation of the National Grid, and extended to Scotland in 2005 by Labour.
The charges were meant to encourage generators to build close to consumers, because the fees rise in line with the consumer’s distance from the source of generation. This means that energy projects like onshore and offshore wind farms in Scotland, built miles from any residents, pay more to connect their energy to the grid. With obvious results for those areas
“We are in the midst of an energy crisis which has been compounded by the war in Ukraine. It has prompted governments across the world to consider how to avoid this situation happening in the future. Scotland’s energy transition can increase security of supply and help to make us far more resilient to future international energy price fluctuations.“ – Michael Matheson, when Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition
The potential for offshore wind in Scotland far exceeds what it consumes.
World-Class Tidal Resources Going To Waste
Tidal turbine company, Atlantis, whose MeyGen project in Orkney is the world’s first large-scale tidal array connected to the grid, is looking to France, where a major government tender is expected in the coming months.
“I think France is sitting on a gold mine, whereas the UK has stalled,” said Drew Blaxland, at Atlantis. He said it is hard to understand the UK’s unwillingness to capitalise on the millions invested in research and development to date: “Why would you run a marathon and then stop at the stadium?”
A leading wave power developer, Corpower, has been testing its bobbing device at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney since January, where 20 companies have deployed new technologies. But Corpower may move after that. “We may go full scale in the UK, or we may go somewhere else,” – CEO, Patrik Möller. He is not confident of new UK support: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“It seems daft,” said one Scottish official: “The UK seems to have given up. France says it wants to be a world leader, Canada says it wants to be a world leader, but there can only be one world leader.’
“You have tidal and wave energy in Scotland and Wales, but Westminster [which controls subsidies] is not interested,” – Dr Martin Edlund, (CEO of a subsea turbine company with millions to invest somewhere). He said the UK had already failed to develop a significant domestic manufacturing industry in wind energy, despite an early lead – the largest wind turbine in the world in the 1980s was in Orkney: “You lost that one, now you are going to lose marine energy.” (Guardian)
Holyrood hopes that, by becoming a net-exporter, it will be in the driving seat of the second energy revolution.
Lots to do to reach CO2 targets
Union Dividend?
While Scottish electricity use is now covered by its renewables production, transport, heating and industry haven’t seen the same reductions in CO2 emissions. And, for now, although Scotland leads the UK in the renewable energy race, as part of the UK, Scots have still fallen victim to the same high cost of living crisis as neighbouring England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Indeed, energy rich, energy self sufficient, Scots are paying the highest standing charges in Britain – Average in: England £169, Wales £187… Scotland £194 (These Islands). Scottish producers, likewise, paying the highest transmission charges… in europe.
“The UK has the best wind resource in Europe, and we should be making the most of the clean electricity we’re producing for UK consumers at the lowest cost and ensuring we can export the massive amount of power we’re generating when there’s a surplus,” said RenewableUK’s director of future electricity systems Barnaby Wharton.
“The current approach to transmission grid charging is not sustainable if we want global Britain to become a bigger player in the international power market. If Ofgem is serious about supporting UK’s net zero emissions target, it should change its approach to ensure we can take advantage of the bountiful natural resources we have.
“Ofgem needs to have a specific net zero remit to ensure we maximise our zero carbon generation as a matter of urgency – and this should be addressed by Ministers alongside the government’s forthcoming Strategy and Policy Statement for Ofgem.”
“Of 36 countries in the European transmission network, 20 do not charge generators at all and only five levy charges based on location,” expanded associate director of RIDG Marc Smeed. “Compare this to Scottish offshore wind projects, which our analysis forecasts will pay £10/MWh – around a quarter of a project’s revenue – to access the grid in the years ahead.
“Addressing this imbalance would help unlock the best wind energy resources in Europe, bringing billions of pounds of investment and jobs to some of the most remote and disadvantaged parts of the UK.”
The report follows criticism from network operator Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) of the current Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charging regime, which it has described as “unfair and volatile”. Similarly it highlighted that the current system makes wind generation in the north of Scotland particularly expensive.
It was already an unthinking narrative with the events of the past ten years. But asking that question, this time especially, given the contents of the document being released and the speech just made, was particularly cloth-eared. The paper was about various vivid failures of the UK. Shown through the kind of international comparison that leaves clammy, bespectacled, ‘These Islands’ types all too obviously agitated and even more snide than normal…
