Renewables 'Powering Most Of Scotland'

Renewable energy now provides most of Scotland's electricity.

Green energy generation is up by nearly 12% on last year, meaning more energy comes from wind, solar and hydro power than nuclear and fossil fuels.

That means that the Scottish Government could hit its green energy targets a year early - they want half of all electricity to come from renewables.

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "The historic agreement reached at the global climate change summit in Paris earlier this month sends a signal of certainty about the global economy’s low carbon future, in the same way as Scotland did through our world-leading climate legislation in 2009.

"Today’s figures show that Scotland’s renewables sector is stronger than ever and our early adoption of clean, green energy technology and infrastructure was the right thing to do. It is fantastic news that renewables are now Scotland’s biggest electricity generator, and that nearly half of gross electricity consumption comes from renewables.

"Despite damaging policy changes from the UK Government, we will continue to harness – and bolster – Scotland’s renewables potential, both in generation and infrastructure. At the end of Q3 2015, there was 7,504 MW of installed renewables electricity capacity in Scotland, an increase of 4.6% over the year."

Scottish Renewables' Senior Policy Manager, Joss Blamire, said: "These new figures confirm that in 2014 Scotland produced the equivalent of 49.7% of its electricity from renewable energy – the highest proportion ever, and up almost 12% on 2013.

"These latest UK Government figures are a clear sign of how important renewables have become to our energy sector.

"While we are now almost half way to our 2020 goal of producing the equivalent of 100% of our electricity from renewables, the second half of the target is going to be much harder to achieve than the first.

"To see further progress, both the UK and Scottish Governments must now put renewables at the heart of their energy policy in terms of cutting carbon emissions, reducing bills for consumers and increasing our energy security."