ScottishPower has called for political support to develop more onshore windfarms after hitting a record high of power from the sector.
After the completion of a £650 million infrastructure project, ScottishPower Renewables has passed the 2,000 megawatt (MW) UK milestone.
The company has now called for politicians and regulators to back the development of the industry in Scotland in order to keep up with an anticipated increase in demand.
Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “It’s now cheaper, easier and faster to build onshore wind. In a little over 18 months we have built over 470 MW of onshore wind, delivering enough power for more than 280,000 homes and with it significant environmental and financial benefits for the UK.
“If the UK Government is serious about reducing carbon emissions and having enough clean power to support the huge expected growth in electric vehicles, then more onshore wind is essential. One new onshore wind turbine could power around 7,000 electric vehicles, but we need to act now to meet growing demand.”
Analysis from the firm shows that 66% of investment in onshore wind has been spent in the UK, and over three quarters of the total UK investment has been spent in Scotland.
Scottish Government Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, said: “Investing in renewables is key to Scotland’s transition to a low carbon future.
“It has not only brought jobs to our communities, and boosted our economy, but it has contributed to the progress of Scotland’s world leading climate change targets.”
A spokesman for the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: “The UK is a global leader in tackling climate change and the UK Government’s latest auction for renewable technologies secured projects set to deliver over 3GW of electricity, enough to power 3.6 million homes.
“We’re committed to supporting the development of onshore wind projects in the remote islands of Scotland and will set out our plans shortly.
“And by setting long-term targets, like the one to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040, we can ensure the grid is ready for the mass transition to cleaner technologies.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article