Meeting of the Parliament 06 December 2016
I declare an interest as a councillor in Stirling.
I thank the Scottish Government for lodging the motion for this afternoon’s debate. It is right that, as a Parliament, we repeatedly celebrate the green energy achievements of the past 17 years. In fact, 2016 has been a record-breaking year for wind power, which, on several days and for the first time ever, has generated more electricity than Scotland’s entire demand.
The fact that renewables meet the equivalent of well over half our electricity needs in Scotland is a story of success, but it also begs the question about our longer-term goals. There is no room for complacency: electricity generation represents only a quarter of our energy needs, as transport and heat are largely still fuelled by fossil energy sources.
It is clear that fully decarbonising the energy sector—for example, by shifting to electric transport and district heating—inevitably means an increase in demand for electricity, which will require efforts to create local energy systems that can balance supply and demand. Much of the support for and development of those approaches is possible here in Scotland under devolved powers, and good work on innovation has already been piloted under programmes such as the local energy challenge fund with support from the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.
However, I note that the minister will not support our call for an all-energy target today. I hope that, with the publication of the draft energy strategy in January, he will take the opportunity to renew our collective ambition in the Parliament and look to countries such as Norway and the Netherlands that are now pinning dates on the phasing out of fossil fuel-powered cars.
In a debate about potential and ambition, it is also right that we challenge the assumption that the current pipeline of electricity projects will still be there in years to come in the face of what can only be described as ideological attacks from the Westminster Government. I accept that we have a regulated market for electricity in the UK and that the reforms that were put in place by the Westminster coalition Government were designed to deliver the lowest cost to consumers with an effective route to market for the energy infrastructure that we will be relying on for the generation to come at least.
The pathway of progress for onshore wind in particular has delivered more energy generation for less and less cost to consumers year on year. Costs are down in the supply chain, as are operation and maintenance costs. In addition, more powerful and efficient turbines are able to harness more of the infinitely renewable wind resource that Scotland is blessed with. The expectation in the industry is that onshore wind and, in time, other technologies will become subsidy free and will be able to generate on the wholesale price of electricity alone.
However, instead of Westminster giving the industry a stable financial bridge to cross the narrowing cost gap to a subsidy-free future, it has simply pushed the whole onshore wind and solar sector into the abyss. Confidence is down, jobs have been lost and long-term investment strategies are being questioned. With the renewable obligation cut, public sector projects such as Stirling Council’s 5 megawatt solar farm have fallen short agonisingly close to grid connection, losing millions of pounds that could have closed attainment gaps, reabled the elderly and fixed potholes locally.
What was the point in the huge subsidy cuts? The Don Quixotes of the Tory Government had already successfully railed against turbines in the home counties by introducing draconian planning policies, despite the fact that their own research showed growth in public support for wind across the UK. There was no need for them to kick against their own market ideology by fixing a scheme to exclude the lowest-cost technology of onshore wind from the mix, because they had already loaded the planning system.