Did you know that one European country could be using 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025?
No coal-fired power station has been operating in Scotland since March 2016. At that time, the power station at Longannet, north-west of Edinburgh, which had been in operation since 1973, closed. This means that after 115 years, Scotland has ended the generation of electricity from burning coal.
Statistics show that the share of renewable energy in Scotland's total electricity consumption was 97.4 per cent in 2022, compared to 90.1 per cent the year before. Scotland owes this result primarily to the development of onshore wind farms, which provided around 70 per cent of the country's green energy. The remaining 30 per cent was provided by offshore wind farms and hydropower.
Scottish Renewables, the association for the renewable energy industry in Scotland, highlights how much progress has been made over the past decade. In 2011, the share of renewables in the overall energy mix was just 37 per cent.
The latest figures show that Scotland could be using 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025 and even start transporting the surplus to other countries.
Plans are underway to install and commission a new wind farm of 60 SG 14-222 DD turbines for Moray West, an offshore wind farm owned by Ocean Winds, located off the coast of north-east Scotland in 2024. Each turbine will have an individual capacity of 14.7MW; at the moment the most powerful wind turbine ever built. Scotland is now close to meeting its target of full renewable energy use in the national electricity supply, with the Scottish authorities planning to achieve a 50 per cent share of renewable energy in total electricity, heat and transport consumption by 2030. The long-term goal is to achieve near-total decarbonisation by 2050.