Annex A
COMMENTS ON
THE POTENTIAL
OF RENEWABLE
TECHNOLOGIES IN
SCOTLAND IN
THE LIGHT
OF THE
SCOTLAND'S
RENEWABLE RESOURCE
2001 REPORT
A recent study by Garrad Hassan for the Scottish
Executive identified the magnitude of potential renewable energy
resources across Scotland. The study used up-to-date information
on each renewable resource, and modelled it against planning,
environmental, economic and technical constraints. It looked at
the feasible potential within such constraints up to year 2010
and also 2025.
The report analyses all the main opportunities
and points to the massive potential available in Scotland across
a range of technologies. The study indicates that nearly 60GW
of new renewable energy generating capacity could be available
on and offshore in Scotland at under 7p per unit by 2010 (including
local grid connection costs but not grid strengthening costs).
The main renewable energy opportunities lie in the longer term
with offshore developments of wave and tidal stream power, with
offshore wind also having a role to play. However, these very
promising options are not yet ready for full commercial development,
either in their technology or their price competitiveness. A major
contribution in the short or medium term is forecast for onshore
wind, as the technology that is market-ready and most price-competitive
for making a major contribution now.
ONSHORE
WIND
Garrad Hassan identifies an 11.5GW capacity
for onshore wind available at under 3p per unit. The report estimates
that this resource is available within 30 per cent of Scotland's
land area which is not environmentally designated in one way or
another, and in fact could occupy only around two per cent of
that area. However, local transmission constraints limit this
resource to 3.1-3.4 GW, with network modifications or upgrades
required to accommodate additional capacity. This means that the
Scottish Executives objective of 18 per cent of electricity by
2010 by increased renewables generation could be achieved largely
through onshore wind, which would require around 1GW or new capacity.
Windfarms, however, have very significant visual
and landscape impacts. Ther is also potential for biodiversity
impacts, but usually these can be avoided by careful siting. For
onshore wind, strategic guidance is most urgently needed, to ensure
that the planning system guides development towards those landscapes
best able to accommodate such development, thus safeguarding the
high values attaching to many Scottish landscapes, not least as
a tourism asset and an attraction to potential inward investors.
In this regard we are pleased to note that the encouragement we
have given to exploration of one or more locations for very large
windfarms, which might meet a significant proportion of Government's
2010 targets, has met with a positive industry response.
Given the impending scale of renewable energy
developments expected, SNH considers that with wind farms there
is still an opportunity to establish a more planned approach,
in order to guide wind energy development to those areas where
it can be developed with least impact on important natural heritage
interests. SNH is in the process of identifying the natural heritage
sensitivities that it considers should be addressed by councils
in planning positively for wind energy.
Given the very dynamic of renewable development,
SNH will be keeping the policy line under close review and more
detailed strategic and locational guidance on other forms of renewable
energy, particularly offshore wind and other marine energy, is
likely. At present, the scale of demand from outwith Scotland
is not yet clear, and there may well, in due course, be market
demand for renewables from energy suppliers beyond Scotland. This
may lead, in due course, to the need for a more fundamental review
of the limits of capacity for renewable energy development within
Scotland to meet needs from elsewhere, having regard for the need
to maintain the overall quality of our natural heritage.
HYDRO
The major opportunities for large-scale hydro
development were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Most remaining
opportunities offering significant water flow and head are in
areas, which would be likely to be regarded as sensitive on the
basis of their landscape or recreational amenity. While we consider
there is likely to be significant scope for further sensitively
designed small-scale hydro development in Scotland, the scope
for further large-scale development is likely to be very limited.
Refurbishment of existing hydro schemes could deliver substantial
additional capacity. Further dialogue with the industry and potential
developers is required to improve knowledge of the current situation.
OFFSHORE
WIND, WAVE
AND TIDAL
There is a particular need to consider the potential
for offshore forms of renewable energy. Garrad Hassan note there
is a very large potential energy resource for marine technologies,
but the need for technological development and grid capacity currently
limit exploitation.
Appropriately sited offshore windfarms may impact
less on Scotland's landscapes and seascapes than terrestrial windfarms,
albeit at a higher development cost. It should be noted, however,
that the Scottish coast is very diverse and that some stretches
are likely to be much less suitable than others. We are currently
assessing proposals for Scotland's first offshore wind farm in
the Solway Firth, which is in effect an estuarial, rather than
a tidal marine, site. Offshore wave energy and tidal stream energy
may have the potential to provide very substantial quantities
of energy with relatively few environmental impacts; though impacts
on marine wildlife and environmental risks from navigation hazards
will have to be taken into account. We have welcomed the selection
of a European Marine Energy Test area in Orkney, subject to respect
for the landscapes of the National Scenic Area within which part
of the test area lies.
The development of appropriate technologies,
the identification of appropriate locations and the exploration
of the natural heritage impacts of offshore wind, wave and tidal
energy developments need to be carefully considered. SNH will
be therefore developing policy and evaluation frameworks in relation
to the new and evolving technologies of off shore wind, wave and
tidal stream.
BIOMASS
There would appear to be considerable scope
for the development of biomass schemes based either on the extensive
woodland resource in Scotland or on new coppice woodland established
on former agricultural land. It is important though that assessment
of climate benefits of schemes take account of harvesting and
transport requirements and that crop management regimes are not
such as to introduce new land pollutants.
TRANSPORT
FUELS
We draw attention to the conclusion in the EC
Green Paper on energy (``Towards a European Strategy for the security
of energy supply") that the biofuel market is constrained
by the greater cost, pre-tax, of biofuel than oil, and that a
relatively modest reduction in excise duty for biofuels could
stimulate a significant level of use, as a renewable transport
fuel.
Use of hydrogen as a transport fuel would open
up the potential for renewable energy resources in locations not
readily accessible to the grid distribution system to produce
bottled hydrogen for physical distribution. Such a process is
potentially of considerable economic importance to areas of Scotland
such as the Western and Northern Isles, as well as providing a
transport fuel with near-zero carbon emissions. We endorse the
importance of research and investment in developing the potential
for this technology.
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