Renewable Energy
Good morning. The first item of business is a statement by Fergus Ewing on the 2020 route map for renewable energy in Scotland. The minister will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interruptions or interventions.
09:00
Scotland’s renewable energy story can be traced back to the period following the second world war and the vision and determination of Tom Johnston. As a Highlands MSP, I am well aware of the impact of the hydro programme, which began in the 1940s, in transforming the lives of families and the fortunes of the region. In the period since devolution, renewable energy has become linked with the growth of modern Scotland, and the rapid pace of progress has allowed us to be ever more ambitious about the contribution that a wide range of renewable sources can make towards our energy needs.
The Government has introduced a target to meet 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewables by 2020. That is not all that we produce; it is equivalent to all that we consume. We will produce up to twice as much as that. The target reflects scale, strength and value: the scale of our natural resources; the strength of our energy capabilities; and the value that we place on that high-growth sector of our economy. The achievement of that target and our ambitions for renewable heat and sustainable transport will mean that we can meet at least 30 per cent of our overall energy demand from renewables by 2020. With our emissions reduction targets and our aim to reduce consumption by 12 per cent by 2020, it is clear that, as a nation, we are at the forefront of the global shift towards sustainable, low-carbon development.
However, we need to go further and faster to secure our place as a European leader in renewable energy. Therefore, the renewables route map, which is being published today, sets out the key actions that are needed to achieve our new targets and to seize the opportunity for Scotland to research and develop, design, construct and service the technologies that will power the 21st century.
The headlines from the route map speak for themselves. We have a challenging electricity target and actions to meet it, but it is not just about electricity. Our route map sets out progress towards the target to meet 11 per cent of heat demand from renewables by 2020 and our commitment to ensure that impacts on existing biomass users are mitigated as demand continues to grow, including through our forthcoming review of support for large-scale electricity-only biomass under the renewables obligation (Scotland). We do not believe that large-scale biomass electricity-only plants, which require the transglobal shipment of wood, are good for the planet or the economy.
We have made a commitment to set up an expert commission on the development of district heating, and we have set a new target to meet 30 per cent of overall energy demand from renewables by 2020 and a new target of 500MW community and locally owned renewable energy by 2020. That is a transformational opportunity for the local ownership of energy that is set within our wider aspiration to support community asset ownership. To help to meet that challenge, we undertake to work with investors to establish a new green equity fund for community renewables. We will follow up our securing the benefits consultation to provide greater clarity for community benefits from commercial schemes, and we will enhance our commitment to small-scale and rural renewables through the development of a microgeneration strategy and an agri-renewables strategy.
We do not underestimate the challenges. In particular, there is a need to ensure that the United Kingdom electricity market continues to provide the right level of incentives. We are working constructively with the UK Government to highlight areas in which we have a legitimate devolved role in setting the support framework for developing low-carbon generation, especially protection of our role in determining financial support for renewables and, in future, for carbon capture and storage.
We need to continue to work to secure adequate connection with European Union neighbours to ensure that UK demand is not a limiting factor on the ability of Scottish generators to dispatch and export their electricity.
Good progress has been made on renewables employment opportunities. The picture is fast moving, but the latest projections from Skills Development Scotland are for up to 40,000 new jobs in the sector by 2020. I am sure that we all recognise the potential of renewables for the Scottish economy.
We must address the range of technology and market failures that may act as a barrier to deployment and tackle the many infrastructure, skills and supply chain barriers to deployment. We need to ensure that Scotland secures adequate economic and social benefit from renewable energy deployment. Lastly, we need to secure the funding required for all those ambitious plans.
The route map goes further in scope and ambition than any previous strategy for renewable energy in Scotland. It sets out a comprehensive path towards achieving our ambition to be the green energy powerhouse of Europe. Taken alongside our electricity generation policy statement, which is currently being updated, the route map sets the course for a rapid expansion in renewables capacity, complemented by greater energy efficiency, advances in energy storage and the development of carbon capture and storage technologies.
This Government will continue to listen and to make the most of the expertise of all parties in Parliament, including the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, to ensure that we get our energy policies right for Scotland.
However, we see no place for new nuclear power, because it is an expensive technology of the last century that offers Scotland no competitive advantage. We welcome the recent announcement by the German Government of a decisive move to phase out nuclear by 2022, alongside a huge expansion of its already significant renewables capacity. That announcement adds to the growing international realisation of the difficulties associated with nuclear power.
Renewable energy provides perhaps Scotland’s greatest economic and environmental opportunity this century. Our new route map sets out what we need to do collectively to write the next chapter in Scotland’s renewable energy story. I hope that Parliament will unite behind it to ensure that we grasp the opportunity in front of us.
Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab)
I thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement and welcome the scale of the Scottish Government’s ambition for our country to be a world leader in renewables.
Having set that ambitious target, ministers face the key question of how they will achieve it and how they will show in this session of Parliament that they are on course to deliver on the 2020 pledge on renewables generation, which changed rapidly from a target of meeting 80 per cent of demand to one of meeting 100 per cent of demand.
The road map, too, is welcome, but the projections for renewable electricity generation show the steep increase required in the years ahead to meet the target, particularly between 2015 and 2020.
How often will the minister provide updates on the progress that is being made? What interim targets will he set in this session to show that the Scottish Government is on course for the overall 2020 target?
The road map refers to the £70 million national renewables infrastructure fund, which is welcome, but it is likely to be a fraction of the investment required. How will the Scottish Government ensure that improvements in the infrastructure of our ports and other facilities—improvements that are necessary to realise the targets—are delivered?
We still require more detail from ministers on how they will ensure that Scotland’s economy benefits from increasing manufacturing in the renewables sector. Will the minister bring further plans on that to Parliament, as it is vital if we are to reap all the rewards that we should reap from Scotland’s natural advantages in what is a vital industry for the future?
I thank Richard Baker for his questions and the tone with which he put them. I commend his colleague Sarah Boyack who, when she was a minister, set targets that at the time appeared ambitious but which were all achieved, as we discussed yesterday in a briefing session for members. Equally, although our targets are ambitious, we believe that they are achievable. In the foreword to the route map, I point out that more than a quarter of Scotland’s electricity needs already come from renewables. I also make the important point, which is perhaps not widely appreciated, that renewables projects and operations that are under construction or have consent will provide almost 60 per cent of our electricity needs. So, although there is a mountain still to be climbed, we are a good way up that mountain.
Richard Baker asked how frequently we will report back to Parliament. We will report back to Parliament as frequently as is necessary and certainly when there are major changes. Timing in the next six to 12 months will be absolutely crucial. There will be negotiations and discussions with the United Kingdom Government about electricity market reform. Project transmit and the unfair charges from which Scotland currently suffers and the issues surrounding operation and investment will all be considered in the next six months. In fact, we might be seeing the biggest set of changes in the energy sector since the electricity privatisation of 1989. The next six to 12 months will be absolutely critical. We are working with the UK Government to get the best possible deal for Scotland.
The member’s final question concerned the industrialisation of Scotland and where the jobs and investment will come from. Plainly, we believe that the investment should come from several sources. We are negotiating for the return of the fossil fuel levy—currently at £200 million—from the Westminster Government, which has already drawn down some of England’s share of the levy. We are working with many companies, including Mitsubishi, Gamesa and Doosan, which are world-leading companies in the manufacture of turbines, and negotiating with them to try to persuade them to invest heavily in our ports. We will use the £70 million fund towards that aim.
I hope that those rather long comments answer all of Mr Baker’s questions.
Jackson Carlaw (West Scotland) (Con)
I, too, thank the minister for providing an advance copy of his statement. On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I admire the Government’s ambition. Indeed, for the members of his party congress who are with us this morning, I say that the Scottish Conservatives support, applaud, embrace and will ring the bells for the Government’s ambition in this regard. We will do all that we can to support the Government, business and industry in realising Scotland’s natural renewables potential.
Although the minister’s statement was full of the poetry of ambition, the targets are tough, the timeline is fixed and the actions are conditional. I hear what the minister said about new nuclear capacity, which was rather a slap in the face for President Obama and his Administration, which has invested $500 billion in new thorium nuclear capacity. To paraphrase the minister, that is new technology for this century that offers the world, and particularly the most disadvantaged countries, a tangible competitive advantage.
Does the minister rule out completely the lifetime extension of Scotland’s existing nuclear capacity and, in particular, Hunterston B, during this session of Parliament?
Jackson Carlaw accuses me of being poetic, which is not an accusation that I have hitherto faced. He goes on to say that our targets are ambitious and, yes, they are. I think that I recognise his snatchets from the initial renewable energy debate in this session of Parliament. The targets are ambitious, but they are not quite as ambitious as those of another party in its 2011 manifesto, namely the Welsh Conservatives. That manifesto states that the Welsh Conservatives wish to “Generate More Renewable Energy” and goes on to say that they will
“Promote a diverse range of renewable energy sources—including solar, wind, marine, small scale biomass, and microgeneration technologies with an aim to produce 100% of our energy needs from renewable sources by 2025.”
I commend the ambition of the Welsh Conservatives; and I commend it in particular to the Scottish Conservatives.
I was asked about the extension of the life of nuclear power stations—an issue that we accept must be considered rationally. We are perfectly open to an extension of the life of the existing nuclear power stations, providing that the case is justified on economic and environmental grounds. That case exists, and it exists because of the need for security of supply. We have always acknowledged that, although we are clearly opposed to the building of new nuclear power stations. I hope that my answer has given some assurance to Jackson Carlaw.
Many members have requested to speak, and I would like to get every member in. I therefore remind members that their questions should be brief, and I remind the minister that his answers should be brief too.
Will the minister confirm that the exciting renewables revolution that he has outlined this morning will translate into a massive boost for job creation? When does he expect significant employment opportunities to come on stream? Will my constituents in south and east Ayrshire have as much access to those opportunities as people anywhere else in the country?
As I said in my statement, the prediction of the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets is for 40,000 more jobs in the renewable energy field. In the low-carbon sector, the target is 130,000. Of course, low carbon covers more than renewable energy; it also covers environmental jobs, and jobs related to waste and the efficient use of energy. That is all to be welcomed.
We believe that there is an environmental case for renewable energy—which can also answer the question of the volatility of gas prices. As has been debated in this Parliament, one utility company has made substantial increases.
We also believe that renewable energy will transform job opportunities in the Scottish economy. I have already mentioned three of the largest companies in the world in the manufacture of offshore wind turbines, and they are all interested in coming to Scotland. One reason for that is precisely our setting of ambitious targets. That has aroused, stimulated and secured the interest of the leading companies in the world, and that must be a good thing.
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab)
I want to ask the minister about some of the targets in the 2020 document. The Scottish Government proposes 375 new electric vehicle charging points; we in the Labour Party have proposed 10,000 charging points by 2015. Will the Government review its commitment, bearing in mind that 20 per cent of carbon emissions come from transport?
The Government’s target for renewable heat is also reasonably modest, at 11 per cent by 2020. Current output is ahead of the Government’s trajectory, so will the Government increase that target too?
We certainly wish to achieve the greatest possible success in transport and we are happy to work with the Labour Party on that. I am well aware of the Labour Party’s ambitious commitments and I would like to continue a dialogue on how, in practice, we can exceed our hopes and aspirations on all those fronts.
I hope that we will make progress with the announcements that I have made today. For example, I would like to develop the strategies on microgeneration and agri-renewables and to get them in place before the end of the year, if possible. I am willing to work with all members to secure that objective.
Will the minister expand on his comments on the green equity fund? I think that he connected it with community and locally owned facilities.
We want to encourage community renewables schemes, which is why we have set the target of 500MW. At the moment, we are in the region of 180MW—so, again, we have set an ambitious target.
One of the ways in which we think it would be sensible to stimulate such projects is by having a green equity fund that would focus on the community side. We debated the green investment bank in Marco Biagi’s members’ business debate some weeks ago and focused on large-scale investment. The purpose of the green equity fund is to fill a gap for small-scale community schemes. Members might ask: how much will this fund be? I thought that somebody would have asked me that, but since no one has, I will answer the question anyway. We have not yet set the fund total because we want to see how successful we are in securing the return of the £200 million fossil fuel levy, which, thus far, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury have been unwilling to return to us. We hope that that will change, and when it does, we hope that the green equity fund will include a reasonable proportion of the levy to develop community schemes.
The minister’s targets are set out in the route map. Does he accept that fuel poverty now affects 40 per cent of Scottish households? Will he use his leadership to ensure that households benefit from affordable local and community renewables? Will he commit to considering the Birmingham City Council model, which is delivering energy bill reduction, a massive increase in local renewables and energy efficiency all at the same time? There will be a big payback for that council over the next 25 years using the feed-in tariff. In our manifesto, we committed ourselves to supplying 10,000 houses with renewable energy over the next four years. Will the minister commit to match that or go further than us? I know that the Government has a target to meet by Christmas. The Birmingham model already exists and works, so we are keen to accelerate that target.
There is a consonance of objectives between the Government and the views that Sarah Boyack has expressed, as I have already tried to make clear. Since the introduction of the fuel poverty programme, we have seen, through the energy assistance package, more than 150,000 people on low incomes reduce their energy bills and keep their homes warm now and for years to come. It is plain, however, that the recent increases in electricity and gas prices will hit the most vulnerable hardest. That is an area in which I expect to work with all members to see what can be done practically to help those families.
I thank the minister for the advance copy of his statement and welcome both the route map and the content of his statement this morning. I welcome particularly the reference in the route map to microrenewables and storage.
The minister talked about an aspiration to support community asset ownership. The document refers to the Forestry Commission in Scotland leading the way on the public estate. The minister will be aware of concerns about the way in which the Forestry Commission has gone about harnessing the assets at its disposal and that it has not always been to the community’s benefit. Perhaps the minister will let the chamber know where lessons have been learned in that regard.
Following the constructive tone of his response to Rhoda Grant, will the minister advise the chamber when we might see the low-carbon vehicle action plan, which would go some way towards addressing some of the concerns that Rhoda Grant raised?
In response to the member’s first question, I am aware of the issue, which was raised by Sarah Boyack in the renewable energy debate when she alluded to her concern about the Forestry Commission tendering process not availing communities of opportunities in that regard. Given that we have made a commitment this morning to introduce a microgeneration strategy and that we want to develop community initiatives as far as possible by the end of this year, I have decided that it would be reasonable to engage fully and directly with the Forestry Commission to see what lessons we can learn for the future.
In response to the second question about low-carbon vehicles, we want to see what progress can be made as quickly as possible. Since Liam McArthur has raised the matter today, I will raise it with the Minister for Housing and Transport, Keith Brown, and the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, so that we can take it forward. We will get back to Liam McArthur and give him a specific answer on timing if we can.
I hope that the minister can clarify with urgency permitted development rights and the guidelines on the noise window for wind turbines, so that local planners, who have held up numerous consents in my constituency for over nine months, can adopt a can-do approach to small-scale and community wind projects.
I am aware that this problem has been reported in various parts of the country. Parliament supported the introduction of permitted development rights for domestic microgeneration equipment in 2009-10 and for non-domestic equipment this March; nevertheless, inconsistencies in local planning decisions have been reported to us. Planning decisions are made locally, but we have produced guidance on these matters and will be looking closely at the situation to see whether we can do anything more, especially on the consistent treatment of noise. The issue has been reported to us and we look forward to working with Rob Gibson and other members who are rightly concerned about it.
I welcome the minister’s statement. The route map states that microenergy schemes are most cost-effective and effective at reducing carbon emissions and energy bills only when combined with energy efficiency measures such as insulation. How does the minister propose to ensure that that vital link is maintained, including for those on low incomes? Will he also be more specific about the microgeneration targets? After all, the industry needs certainty if it is to grow.
We certainly wish to encourage microgeneration and to that end we will introduce and work with all members on the strategy.
On energy efficiency, which every member has mentioned, plainly we want to encourage all means by which people might use less energy. At a recent housing expo in my constituency, pioneering design in the efficient heating of housing was demonstrated across a whole range of renewable resources, including solar and geothermal energy. I wish to avoid stating the obvious, but the benefit of renewables is that they are renewable. There will be no volatility in the price of the sun, the waves or the wind. The benefits are clear and we will do all that we can to drive forward measures to reduce energy consumption, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable.
Will the minister outline in more detail the steps that he intends to take to secure community benefits from renewable projects, in particular those accruing to the community of the whole nation from the tremendous potential of the North Sea offshore resource?
Section 3.1 of the route map, which I looked at earlier this morning, spells out the massive opportunity for Scotland’s needs to be powered by offshore wind many times over. I see Jackson Carlaw almost nodding in agreement.
We wish to bring greater clarity to the arrangements for community benefit from onshore wind. Doing so would help to reduce some of the difficulties and tensions that can arise from time to time over applications for onshore wind farms.
I, too, thank the minister for an advance copy of the route map. However, I encourage him to go a little further on the ownership of renewables. I welcome his comments about the forest estate and I hope that they imply that, instead of forest land simply being handed over to big energy companies, communities bidding for it will be prioritised in the process.
Moreover, why is it so hard to find a mention of Scottish Water? Just last year, we heard commitments from the First Minister—
You are asking a question, Mr Harvie, not giving a speech.
—on a publicly owned energy company becoming one of the biggest renewable energy generators in the country. Is the Scottish Government still committed to that and, if so, why is it so hard to find in the route map?
I think that the route map that we have produced is broadly welcomed by Patrick Harvie—at least I hope so. We will ensure that all bodies in Scotland, including Scottish Water, are playing their full part towards achieving the objectives that the route map sets out.
We have set an ambitious new target for community renewables this morning, and that is good. I get the sense that that is broadly welcomed. We all want more communities to benefit. Many schemes in the Highlands and Islands have benefited many communities greatly. In Shetland, for example, energy costs have been reduced, compared with the cost of fossil fuels, through a district heating scheme.
I am sure that Patrick Harvie and I will work shoulder to shoulder in the years ahead on all those matters.
The minister will not need reminding that we are a nation of inventors. The proposed new community schemes are excellent and very welcome, but I hope that we will have provision to protect any new schemes that come forward, particularly when it comes to international patenting and so on. Community groups will not have the appropriate resource to back up any inventions that they come up with.
Secondly, the reporting back to the Parliament needs to be more focused. The challenge for us as a nation is huge, and we should not just say that there will be reports back as and when we need updated; I think we should have a regular arrangement, so that we can focus on where we are going and monitor and benchmark our success.
Mr Malik is absolutely right to praise the achievements of Scottish inventors; indeed, some people argue that Scotland invented the modern world.
Through the work that they do, our universities, including the University of Strathclyde, are leading the way—Jim McDonald briefed members on these matters yesterday. That is why Gamesa has already committed to research jobs in this country—precisely because of the intellectual know-how, capability and leadership in the field of research into renewable energy. That is very much to be welcomed.
We will certainly update Parliament as regularly as appropriate, and my door is always open.