Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2015
No—I need to make some progress.
In his amendment, the minister mentions
“the need for increased investment in large-scale flexible electricity storage solutions, including pumped storage”.
If we are to rely on intermittent sources of energy, he is right to say that we need more storage, but how much more? Does the Government know? I have seen an assessment this week that says that we would need 20 large-scale pump storage schemes. Does the minister agree? If the figure is not 20, how many such schemes do we need? Where would they be built? What would the cost be? Those projects would cost billions in capital expenditure to create. What would the impact on electricity bills be? Does the minister have any answer to those questions, or is he simply making it up as he goes along? We will hear from him shortly.
I turn briefly to the other amendments. Although I agree with the tone of much of Lewis Macdonald’s amendment, unfortunately it deletes the motion’s reference to the closure of Hunterston and Torness, which makes it difficult for us to support it. In addition, I see that Labour’s famous resilience fund is getting yet another run-out; I wonder how many times over that pocket of money has been spent.
The kindest thing that I can say about Patrick Harvie’s amendment is that, after yesterday’s campaign launch, it is good to know that at least one person in the Green Party can finish a sentence. As to the substance, it is the stuff of fantasy. I do not know anyone with a professional involvement in power generation who believes that we can rely wholly on renewables for our energy supply. Even the industry trade body, Scottish Renewables, does not make that claim.
Over the past decade, we have heard a lot from the Scottish National Party and from the former First Minister about how Scotland is to be the Saudi Arabia of renewables and how we are an oil-rich, energy-rich nation, so what an irony it would be if the only way of keeping the lights on in Scotland would be to import power from England, yet that is exactly where we are heading. Members should not take my word for it—that is the view of Professor Younger, who said last week:
“We will be reliant on importing power from England for about 25% of Scottish demand”.
We need at least one new gas-powered generating station for Scotland, and if we are not going to replace Torness and Hunterston with new nuclear capacity, we will probably need more than one. I would like to make a bid for a new gas station to be located at Longannet in Fife. The infrastructure is there, the skills are there and the workforce is there. If the existing station at Longannet has to close—sadly, that looks inevitable, whatever happens to transmission charging—let us have a replacement in that corner of Fife. That needs to be part of a broader energy strategy, which is currently lacking.
I will close by again quoting Professor Younger. Talking of the Scottish Government’s approach, he said:
“We need to be consistent here and have a bit of leadership”.
I agree entirely with that. We need an updated energy strategy for Scotland, and we need that urgently before the lights go out.
I move,
That the Parliament notes with concern the latest threats to the continued operation of Longannet Power Station in Fife, contributing 25% of Scotland’s electricity output at its peak; urges Scottish Power and National Grid to work toward a resolution of the transmission charging issue, but recognises that EU emissions rules and carbon pricing mean that the future of Longannet beyond 2020 is very uncertain; further notes that Scotland’s two nuclear power stations, at Torness and Hunterston, which produced 35% of Scotland’s electricity output between them in 2013, are due to close by 2025; acknowledges the significant loss of electricity generating capacity that this is likely to cause in the next decade; notes that renewable energy, while having a part to play in the energy mix, cannot supply baseload from intermittent sources and that the Scottish Government is opposed to any new nuclear stations being built, and calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward as a matter of urgency a new energy strategy, setting out how new generating capacity will be created to ensure that the lights are kept on without Scotland having to rely on importing energy from the rest of the UK.
14:52