Current status: Answered by Jim Mather on 11 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made towards meeting its targets on renewable energy.
Good progress has been made. Since May last year the Scottish Government has consented 13 large scale renewable energy projects. We are on course to meet our target of generating 31% of Scottish electricity demand from renewables by 2011.
This target equates to around 5 GigaWatts of installed capacity. Currently, the capacity of projects operating and with consent is around 5.5 GigaWatts. Most of these consented projects will be operating by 2011, and there is still time for more to be consented and constructed before 2011.
We are also confident of achieving our target of generating 50% of our electricity from renewables by 2020.