THE ambition to generate 100% of Scotland's electricity from renewable sources by 2020 could be within reach, a report suggests.

Industry body Scottish Renewables has launched an online portal that pulls together figures from a range of sources into a single report.

Scotland's Renewable Energy Sector In Numbers shows figures on energy capacity, output, jobs and investment, and emissions which were buried away in dense Government reports.

The Scottish Government wants to meet the existing level of demand for electricity with renewable sources by 2020. Actual demand may be higher or lower at that point.

The portal demonstrates that current generators, with a total capacity of 4.9 gigawatts (GW), generated 13,735 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity in 2011. It suggests a further 12GW could be generated by projects that are already in the pipeline, although the majority of them are stuck in the planning stage.

If all of these projects make it through by 2020, they have the potential to produce around 37GWh of electricity at current efficiency levels, close to the 39GWh of electricity Scotland consumes at present.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: "These figures show Scotland's renewables industry is very much bucking the economic trend."

Meanwhile, the renewables planning drive continues with a proposed five-turbine extension to ScottishPower Renewables's Whitelee Windfarm, near Glasgow.

The extension would generate up to 12 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy and increase the overall capacity of Europe's largest onshore wind farm to 551MW, enough to power the annual needs of around 300,000 homes.