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Scotland Is on Track To Hit 100% Renewable Energy This Year (gizmodo.com) 151

United Nations scientists have warned that most countries are on track to totally botch the climate goals needed to curb catastrophic global warming. But there's at least one bright spot. From a report: Scotland is on track to move its energy sector to 100 percent renewables by the end of this year. That's just in time to host the United Nations' international climate talks in November. At least someone's doing something right. Environmental organization Scottish Renewables put together a report tracking the country's renewable progress. It shows Scotland renewables provided 76 percent of the electricity consumption based on 2018 data in the report, and the percentage is expected to keep rising and will reach 100 percent soon. That's because unlike many countries, Scotland is actually moving away from fossil fuels rapidly. Scots have completely kicked coal, shutting down the nation's last coal-fired power plant in 2016. And it only has one working fossil fuel-based energy source left, a gas-fired plant in Aberdeenshire (though two more gas plants are slated to be built).
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Scotland Is on Track To Hit 100% Renewable Energy This Year

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  • by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @01:27PM (#59664798) Homepage

    Scotland is a cold country, most homes use natural gas for heating and cooking, most cars are still petrol or diesel powered, so still a long way to go.

    • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @02:49PM (#59665178)
      True, but having abandoned coal is a nice caveat on your caveat.

      If they maintain renewable electricity production throughout the shift to electric cars in the coming decade, that will be pretty great.

      • Hardly, except that everyone is geting rid of coal, its run out and gas is cheaper. Put something irrelevant about emissions here, its all about money.

        But Scotland may generate as much energy as it uses... but the problem si that it doesn't generate it at the same time people want to use it. 4pm to 7pm is the peak, massively more energy is used as everyone comes home and turns on the cooker and the heating.

        And at those times, Scotland takes energy from elsewhere, like the interconnects to England and Norway

        • The interconnects with Norway? Are you from the future?
        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          This points to reality. Countries which are most reliant on importing fossil fuels and those countries most rapidly moving to a fossil fuel free society, the big driver not climate change, the big driver the negative economic impact if importing fossil fuels. For those countries who export fossil fuels, this is an uh oh moment, it wont be much longer before they have no one to export to because all the importers have shifted to alternates. So interesting times ahead for the fossil fuel exporters. Uranium as

        • by radl33t ( 900691 )
          coal is the most plentiful fossil fuel on earth by orders of magnitude. who has run out ?
    • by Carrier Lifetime ( 6166666 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:04PM (#59665238)
      Heating energy consumption can be dramatically reduced by improving the thermal insulation, which on masonry buildings prevalent in Scotland using facade insulation systems. Many homes have been retrofitted this way in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Austria. Further improvements can be achieved by adding recuperating ventilation systems. In this case energy spent on cooking goes into heating the home. Because most of Scotland has pre-automotive urban planning cycling, walking and public transport are viable methods of transportation. Trams, trains and trolleybuses can run on electricity and do not require large batteries. With adequate hydro for storage Scotland can go 100% renewable, and so can countries like Norway or Sweden. Now, flat, cloud countries like Germany and Poland are a completely different animal. Both burn a lot of coal out of necessity, Germans are just better and greenwashing. Because both countries are flat, with a lot of overcast and little wind they do not have any reasonable potential to develop hydro power, wind power or solar power. They can only do biomass, but that is not particularly efficient. The best source of energy in their situation is nuclear, but that is a non-starter for politics reasons.
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Jzanu ( 668651 )
        Nuclear is a non-starter because its safety requirements exceed in cost every single alternative. Every alternative has less risk, even coal. You have to consider both definitions of cost efficiency: cost to produce energy unit and cost required to begin producing energy units. Nuclear loses both beause its start up times render it unable to meet the more valuable variant demand. There is minimum so called "base" which it can meet, but do not be confused thinking this requires nuclear or coal, etc. Variable
        • by boaworm ( 180781 ) <boaworm@gmail.com> on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @04:23PM (#59665506) Homepage Journal

          Science disagrees [nasa.gov] with you. In fact, nuclear power is saving close to 80.000 lives a year worldwide, compared to that energy being produced using fossil fuels.

          "Using historical electricity production data and mortality and emission factors from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, we found that despite the three major nuclear accidents the world has experienced, nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million net deaths worldwide between 1971-2009 (see Fig. 1). This amounts to at least hundreds and more likely thousands of times more deaths than it caused. An average of 76,000 deaths per year were avoided annually between 2000-2009 (see Fig. 2), with a range of 19,000-300,000 per year."

          • they just started returning last year. Financially they lost everything. Maybe the government will compensate them, but they won't get it from the power company. We're talking billions and billions of dollars lost. And what about the kids pulled from their schools in a super competitive education system? That disruption is going to have long term impacts on their lives.

            I don't recall an entire city being evacuated for coal. Even the Centralia fire didn't cause a city wide evacuation, though it did basic
          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            You proved the grandparent's point by resorting to a comparison with fossil fuels. You can't make the claim that nuclear is cheaper than renewables because it isn't and you can't make the claim that it is needed for base load because we have places where it demonstrably has been replaced by renewables.

            In other words it's a tacit admission that they are right, nuclear is unsuitable for Scotland.

        • by Carrier Lifetime ( 6166666 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @05:02PM (#59665626)
          Without nuclear, without coal and without imported energy countries like Germany, Poland, the Baltic states are pretty much back to the 17th century. Their heavy industry can pretty much start shutting the door now.
    • by boaworm ( 180781 ) <boaworm@gmail.com> on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:20PM (#59665262) Homepage Journal

      Correct- title should say Electricity, not energy. This is a quote from scot.gov:

      "Oil and gas (i.e. hydrocarbons) makes up 78.0% of all energy consumption, and hydrocarbons meet 90.5% of all heat demand and almost all energy consumption in transport. "

      and

      "51.7% of electricity generated in Scotland was generated by renewable technologies, compared to just 29.3% for the UK as a whole (or 25.6% for the rest of the UK, excluding Scotland)."

      The numbers are quite far off from gizmodo...

      • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @04:33PM (#59665536) Journal

        Yeah they are conflating energy and electricity, which almost ALL articles promoting renewables does. It's very much a favorite trick.

        It's also less than HALF of their electricity consumption, not 100%.

        The difficult thing about wind is that the energy in wind is proportional to the CUBE of the wind speed. A little difference in wind speed makes a big difference in the amount of electricity generated. So what happens is when the wind is right,nit generates a lot of power. When the wind is slow, the power output drops dramatically. Due to mechanical constraints, the power also drops when the wind blows too hard. Which leads to the second lie here:

        On windy days, Scotland exports wind electricity to England. On not so windy days, they aren't running their homes and businesses on wind that doesn't exist. Their total *production* of wind power for the year will come close to their total consumption of electricity FOR THE YEAR, but the wind is only on certain days - half of it is exported or wasted because the it's a windy day, there is more power than needed that day. Less than half of Scotland's electricity CONSUMPTION is from wind. Because they consume durijg days and times when the wind isn't blowing just right.

        And less than 20% of their energy consumption is from wind.

        A few years ago I noticed something. If somebody is telling you about something that is truly great, they can tell you the great truth about it. If someone consistently lies to you about what they are trying to sell you on, apparently they don't think the truth sounds so great. They feel the need to lie in order to sell you on the idea.

        • by novakyu ( 636495 )

          On windy days, Scotland exports wind electricity to England. On not so windy days, they aren't running their homes and businesses on wind that doesn't exist. Their total *production* of wind power for the year will come close to their total consumption of electricity FOR THE YEAR, but the wind is only on certain days - half of it is exported or wasted because the it's a windy day, there is more power than needed that day. Less than half of Scotland's electricity CONSUMPTION is from wind. Because they consum

        • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @06:28PM (#59665918)

          They are also counting wood chip power as "renewable". Most of the wood chips are grown in America, transported across the Atlantic, and burned in the UK. The process is heavily subsidized by UK taxpayers, uses a lot of fossil fuels in the process, and the low combustion temperature means low efficiency.

          The UK's wood chip scheme is widely recognized as a stupid policy motivated by populist politics rather than economics or environmentalism.

          Most wood energy schemes are a 'disaster' for climate change [bbc.com].

          • except the BBC would prefer to be sensationalist, ratrher than admit that all those wood chips and offcuts would decay naturally and give off CO2 emissions anyway, while we burn gas dug out of the ground. so the wood chip idea is that we at least make use of them to reduce our gas requirements.

            I mean, they quote "wood is not carbon neutral" with a straight face too (and sure, global forest coverage is reducing slowly, but nearly all of that is due to deforestation in the equatorial regions that nobody is go

            • The trees would eventually die and decay, but this is a process that can occur over centuries. So in our lifetime, burning a tree emits far more CO2 than not burning it.

              Even if we decide to burn wood chips for energy, it makes no sense to transport them to ports, ship them across the Atlantic, ship them from the port to the power plant in the UK, and then burn them. It would be far more effective to use UK tax dollars to subsidize the burning of the chips IN AMERICA. That would still be stupid, but less

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It's not less than half their energy consumption. They export nearly half of what they generate which is why this year they will have reached 100% of their own consumption but still be releasing CO2 to cover their exports.

          Still it's a big step in the right direction and secures Scotland's economic future by developing its massive wind resources. Unlike North Sea oil which is running out this is an infinite renewable resource that they can export to Europe indefinitely.

          • > It's not less than half their energy consumption.

            You think they drive wind-powered cars in Scotland?
            ELECTRICITY is less than half of their energy consumption, so much yes wind power is less than half of their energy consumption. It's also less than half of their electricity consumption. More on that in a moment.

            > They export nearly half of what they generate which is why this year they will have reached 100% of their own consumption consumption but still be releasing CO2 to cover their exports.

            Oth

      • The numbers in the gizmodo article are for different things than the quotes you got from scot.gov. Both could be correct. The article qualifies that it is talking about the "energy sector", which I presume is primarily electrical generation, which is different than "all energy consumption" and heating and transport.

        The electricity generation number is a bit harder to reconcile, but still possible. If Scotland only consumes 52% of the electricity that they generate (and Scotland does apparently export a

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Jzanu ( 668651 )
      Actually Scotland has a history of using peat/turf for cooking and heating, and it has ample supply. Peat is like coal except the plants are not fossilized so the carbon cycle is absorb-in-growth-and-then-release-when-burned-for-regrowth-plants-to-absorb. That is, carbon neutral by definition. See this [scotsman.com].
      • >"Peat is like coal except the plants are not fossilized so the carbon cycle is absorb-in-growth-and-then-release-when-burned-for-regrowth-plants-to-absorb. That is, carbon neutral by definition."

        No it isn't. Peat takes centuries to thousands of years to form just a few meters thick. So unless they are using NO MORE peat than is being generated, it is NOT carbon neutral any more than coal is.

    • You gotta start somewhere.

    • Wood is considered Renewable too...
      They are not carbon neutral yet. That said cleaner Electricity is a major win for the environment.
      It is normally a scare tactic pointing to our Cars as the biggest polluter. It is popular because we fell its effects most. We pay the price at the Gas Pump, we can smell the smoke in our garage, on cold days during our commute you see stacks of cars with smoke bellowing out of the tail pipes. Then you have the Anti-Environmentalist who play on that too stating this tool th

  • No petrol cars? (Score:5, Informative)

    by slashkitty ( 21637 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @01:28PM (#59664800) Homepage
    No, they are not even close to 100% renewable. Maybe on their electric grid. But, home heating, cooking, industrial, transportation all are still burning fossil fuels.
  • by nagora ( 177841 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @01:33PM (#59664822)

    Given that the Scottish Nationalist Party (Motto: "we hate the English bastards, but we're not racist") regularly uses the supposed loss of oil-revenue to England as one reason that the Scots have been "oppressed" and should be free to seek handouts elsewhere (i.e., the EU). You know, like all free and independent people do.

    • Motto: "we hate the English bastards, but we're not racist.

      Makes sense, since English isn't a race.
      • by nagora ( 177841 )

        Motto: "we hate the English bastards, but we're not racist.Makes sense, since English isn't a race.

        Most things racists hate or love aren't races. Usually, they're just skin tones. The SNP are fairly unusual in hating people who look exactly like them, speak the same language and have almost exactly the same culture and history.

        • I think the Scots are in the same boat with the Irish when it comes to this subject: historically they've been shit on by the English for so long that the sentiments are now handed down from generation to generation, perhaps much in the same way it happens in the Middle Eastern countries. Much of it, so far as I know anyway (could be wrong) is centered around religion; I think the Scots and Irish always tended towards Catholicism, and the English tended towards Protestantism to the point of it being a 'Stat
          • Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)

            by penandpaper ( 2463226 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:02PM (#59665224) Journal

            > There are no 'races' of humans.

            Ugh, there are different haplogroups that can be identified. Different rates of disease are just one expression that can be identified by the colloquial term race.

            > it seems clear to me it's just a tool to create divisions where there are none,

            That has nothing to do with observing that different groups of people are morphologically different that can be generally categorized. We call it "race" for historical reasons. It gets hard to classify because we breed with each other and the lines that may properly define one race becomes less clear as we interbreed. Not to mention that DNA analysis is favored over morphological taxonomy. Can DNA identify race? Companies like 23andme make a business out of identifying heritage and racial makeup.

            Assigning value to one race or another is what is bad. Treating people different because of their race is bad. Recognizing that sickle-cell anemia has a predisposition to a particular categorization colloquially called race is not bad. Recognizing and understanding your heritage as a race of people is not bad.

            >'such and such race isn't human and therefore we can justify not treating them like humans, kill them like the rabid animals they are'.

            You get that rhetoric in many different ways not just race. Just look at how democrats and republicans talk of each other. Or communists and fascists. Or any other opposing ideology that can be grouped as "us vs them". Race is just one among many different excuses to be a bigot and create division. It's just an obvious distinction that can be easily identified.

            Lets not throw the baby out with the bath water. Humans like to categorize to simplify communication. Parading about "race is not real" is only a good between biologists and anthropologists. For the rest of us, we all understand what race is.

            • Then let's stop calling them races and call them haplogroups instead. Problem solved. Race isn't a thing.
              • What problem are you trying to solve exactly? You're not reducing racism by abandoning a useful term. All your doing is making communication more difficult. To me, when people push the "race isn't a thing" they are being overly pedantic and using a post-modern ideology to deconstruct simple categorizations for emotional reasons. Difficult to define != impossible to define. Nor does that mean abandoning useful terms so you feel good about yourself showing off how anti-racist you are.

                >Race isn't a thing.

                Re

                • The word "race" is poorly defined. Unless you give it a definition, then it has a no particular one. Furthermore, "race" in the sense that many people use the word, doesn't exist. So by not using the word, you emphasize that their conception is mistaken.
                  • Race has historical and colloquial meaning. Everyone understands what race means. The only people that pretend race is poorly defined are anthropologists and progressives pushing post modern deconstruction ideology in an attempt to virtue signal.

                    If humans had not created mass transportation and overcome geographic barriers, speciation of homo sapien sapien would have continued. Those barriers were overcome allowing us to interbreed halting speciation generally speaking. That does not dissuade from the geogr

                    • Different people have different definitions of what "white" and "black" mean. You know that.
                    • Yea, in the US those terms are different than in UK just as Asian is different. You know what is also different? Chips. Crisps. Biscuit. Bill. To table something. Football. Should we abandon those words to?

                      Context matters in communication. Understanding who you are communicating with helps to understand the context.

                      Pointing out that communication is imperfect isn't addressing anything. In fact, all it does is highlight the need for communication tools to ensure understanding is conveyed. One way to do that

                    • The geographic heritage of all of us is in Africa, and despite your sophistry. Using a lot of words doesn't make your argument better, it just makes it more boring. You'd be better off to be more laconic, and your mind would be sharper, too.
                    • lol, overly pedantic. Thanks for proving my point.

                      >The geographic heritage of all of us is in Africa

                      What is the story of the people that came from Africa that are white today? Where did they go after leaving Africa? Did they go east?

                    • You should certainly abandon the nonsensical US use of the word 'football'.
                • Thanks, and thank God for a voice of sanity.

                • If people wouldn't be flaming assholes towards other people because they're not the same skin color or come from some other country or culture then I probably wouldn't give a shit about the word 'race' but the fact of the matter is that the word is being leveraged to create divisiveness where there doesn't NEED to be divisiveness and THAT is what I object to, and what anyone who isn't a flaming asshole should likewise be objecting to.

                  Oh and by the way perhaps you should be careful what you say, things yo
                  • So, let me make sure I understand you. Saying "race doesn't exist" will make the world cuddle bears and sunshine? The reverse being that as soon as the word race was used the world became a racist hell hole? Very childish.

                    You should tell those companies doing genetic testing that identify heritage and racial groups that race doesn't exist. I am sure it will go over great .

                    >be careful what you say

                    Wow. You almost sound like one of those Sanders staffers that came out as violent extremists in recent leaks.

                    • Your missing the point, perhaps intentionally, is what makes me wonder if you're one of those crafty racist types that attempt to 'turn' people with reasonable-sounding arguments which, of course, are complete bullshit.

                      "Saying "race doesn't exist" will make the world cuddle bears and sunshine?"
                      It's not the word. It's the intent behind the word, and how the word has been TWISTED to fit the ill-intent of racists. The idea of 'racism' needs to be erradicated in the human species. Getting the word 'race' a
                    • Any word with ill-intent can be twisted for bad purposes. Race is a simple categorization of morphological and geographic heritage. Getting rid of words doesn't do anything except materialize an Orwellian fever dream.

                      In fact, I would argue it's good we have a word that is separate from other taxonomical classifications to describe sub-categorizations of humans. It divorces any notion of 'lesser' that may be perceived by laymen when using prefixes like 'sub' like in 'subspecies'. There is nothing 'lesser' ab

              • Yes, because changing the word you use for a concept really destroys the concept.

                Jakes, crapper, water closet, bathroom, john.

          • by hoofie ( 201045 )

            So much wrong with this - as you say you are an American so know f-all.

            The relation Scotland has with England compared to Ireland is very, very different. The Union in 1707 brought Scotland into the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and expansion of the British Empire, something Scotland did financially very well out of. The shipyards, ironworks and coal fields were a direct result of that. Ireland got zip.

            The Scots have not tended towards Catholicism - have you heard of the Protestant Church of Scotl

        • Actually, I think you will find that historically humans have mostly hated and fought people who look exactly like them.
    • Why do anglophones have completely and absolutely zero idea what racism is, *at all*?

      1. You mean nationalism. (The thing that Americans think is great and totally not Nazi-like.) But you can't say that, because you're spewing it yourself.
      2. Racism, as a term, is defined as "believing there is such a thing as races". NOT automatically implying hate. But indirecly, via the assumption that other "races" are inferior.
      Something we have hard scientific evidence to be false, since the 19-freakin-20s! And nowadays

  • Oh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cyberchondriac ( 456626 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @01:33PM (#59664826) Journal

    "And it only has one working fossil fuel-based energy source left, a gas-fired plant in Aberdeenshire (though two more gas plants are slated to be built)."

    Not only is the headline misleading, but when the two gas plants are built, it contradicts said headline.

    • "And it only has one working fossil fuel-based energy source left, a gas-fired plant in Aberdeenshire (though two more gas plants are slated to be built)."

      Not only is the headline misleading, but when the two gas plants are built, it contradicts said headline.

      Headline? What's a headline?

      Oh, you mean the clickbait that's validated with views and likes from gullible people?

      Who needs facts when you can make money selling bullshit...

    • Not only is the headline misleading, but when the two gas plants are built, it contradicts said headline.

      It does not contradict the headline. One requires the ability to generate power even when the wind is not blowing and sun is not shining. It does not imply that the new gas plants will run 24/7 - they will probably just idle.

      What would be interesting is to know how long ago the gas plants were planned. It might be that a battery based solution, such as what Tesla built in Australia, would now be a better solution (now that it is proven). Or perhaps a battery based solution would allow the plants to re

      • William Wallace: No wind? ... THIS. IS. SCOTLAND!!! *kicks over English horse*

      • > What would be interesting is to know how long ago the gas plants were planned. It might be that a battery based solution, such as what > Tesla built in Australia, would now be a better solution (now that it is proven). Or perhaps a battery based solution would allow the plants > to remain off instead of idling.

        They are building the UKs largest battery plant already and have more in planning.

    • > Not only is the headline misleading, but when the two gas plants are built, it contradicts said headline.

      Only if they don't use excess energy to offset. Which they are by feeding hydrogen into the natgas pipes. There was just an article on this here like 4 days ago.

    • Scotland probably still exchange electricity with England. So it's possible they generate N kWh of electricity in a year from renewables and consume N kWh of electricity, despite their gas power plants. They probably use their fossil plants when it's not windy or when the power demand is high. When the power demand is low and it's windy they probably export a lot of clean electricity to England.

    • by Tx ( 96709 )

      Plans for one of those plants have been rejected [bbc.co.uk]. Anyway, those plants are intended to supplement the supply during peaks, so if they will be using 100% renewables much of the time, that's pretty good going, even if the headline is a little misleading. I guess that's what they meant.

  • by petes_PoV ( 912422 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @01:45PM (#59664886)
    The actual wording is: renewable sources to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of Scotland’s gross annual electricity consumption by 2020. [euanmearns.com]

    And that is a long way short ... a very, very, long way short of suggesting that Scotland will not need to import any electricity. Nor that it is self-sufficient in renewables for all its energy needs.

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      Yes, headlines are a very abbreviate indicator of whats in the article.
      This is fine, and its normal.
      What is not =fine* or normal, is screaming about a headline that been abbreviated but not bothering to understand the article.
      Has anyone who scream about headlines even bothered to read headline guidelines?

      It's like abbreviating the hobbit to one quick line, then some screaming it didn't mention mirkwood.

    • Correct. Scotland exports most of their wind power. That is why they have nuclear and gas to provide reliable electricity for Scotland, and are planning on still adding two more gas plants. But it gets people excited and that is all that matters in 2020. Scotland will likely never get all of their power from renewables.

  • by dak999 ( 5288847 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @02:19PM (#59665048)
    First off, as another commentor said, it isn't that we are producing only renewable energy. It's that we are producing enough renewable energy to meet the electricity needs (in terms of quantity) of people in Scotland. But it's important to remember that Scotland has 1) a very low population density compared to the rest of Europe, and 2) a lot of wind and renewable energy potential, again more than the average European country. For those who aren't up on their Scottish history, the Highlands and western islands were cleared of many of their people in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is called the Clearances. Still has the effects of a relatively empty landscape (in terms of human population) in the northern part of the country. "Highland Clearances, the forced eviction of inhabitants of the Highlands and western islands of Scotland, beginning in the mid-to-late 18th century and continuing intermittently into the mid-19th century. The removals cleared the land of people primarily to allow for the introduction of sheep pastoralism. The Highland Clearances resulted in the destruction of the traditional clan society and began a pattern of rural depopulation and emigration from Scotland." Source: https://www.britannica.com/eve... [britannica.com] While I'm happy that there is renewable energy happening in Scotland, much of it has to do with historical and geographical accident than progressive nature of Scotland's policies.
  • by skullandbones99 ( 3478115 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:00PM (#59665218)

    Scotland has a population around 5 million people which is less than that of Greater London of about 8 million people. Scotland has a land area approaching the size of England. Scotland has plenty of wind resources to harness.

    It should be trivial for Scotland to harness sufficient wind power to support the electricity needs for the whole of the Scottish population. There are also some pumped storage hydroelectric schemes in Scotland for grid storage.

    It would be very disappointing if Scotland was not self-sufficient in renewable electricity generation as it is one of the countries that has a really good potential of quickly being self-sufficient in renewable electricity generation.

    • It should be trivial for Scotland to harness sufficient wind power to support the electricity needs for the whole of the Scottish population.

      But it isn't trivial and Scotland isn't producing renewable power for the needs of their whole population. Most of their renewable power is exported.

      It would be very disappointing if Scotland was not self-sufficient in renewable electricity generation as it is one of the countries that has a really good potential of quickly being self-sufficient in renewable electricity generation.

      Then prepare to be disappointed. They are not self-sufficient with renewable power. The majority of their renewable power is exported.

      • Scotland are part of the National Grid, Britain's only electrical transmission grid. So of course they "export" most of their renewable power to England, which is also part of the National Grid.

        When you are one part of Britain and you are sending energy to another part of Britain, you are not really "exporting" it, are you? You are running an efficient National Grid.

  • Oh, wait, this is Scotland!

    Correction: And what will they do, when there's too much wind?

  • by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:31PM (#59665312) Homepage

    Personally, living in Scotland, what I think is the most important factor going forward is that it is one of the very few countries in the world where the population level is pretty much exactly the same as it was 100 years ago. (and only around double that of 200 years ago, long before the Industrial Revolution).

    In other words, it is well suited to post-industrial living, having a rich pre-industrial history to fall back on.

  • The UK now generates more electricity from wind-power (17.1%) than coal (5.1%). That is good news.
    Meanwhile Iceland is already at 100% renewable, but they are perhaps a bit spoiled by the availability of hydro-power and a bit of geothermal.
  • by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Tuesday January 28, 2020 @03:48PM (#59665384) Journal
    As of 2016, they were getting 40% of their electricity from nuclear [gov.scot], and those plants are still running. Or is nuclear now acceptable to the greens?
  • In Orkney, we passed 100% several years ago. The last official number I heard was that we produce 125% of our electrical needs from wind turbines. There has been a link to the UK national grid for a long time. It was built to send power north. Nowadays, I suspect, the power goes the other way more often.

    In the past, there have been many people "informing" us that wind turbines don't work, they would make us sick, kill birds, spoil the view and just make the place seem like an industrial estate. They we

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