Scotland’s Renewable Energy Industry – Opportunities and Challenges

1. Stephen Boyd, Assistant Secretary, Scottish Trades Union Congress Scotland’s Renewable Energy Industry – Opportunities and Challenges

2. Content • Opportunities • STUC aspirations • Policy context • Progress to date • Barriers • Conclusions

3. Opportunities Scotland possesses: • 25% of Europe’s onshore and offshore resource • 25% of Europe’s tidal resource • 10% of Europe’s wave resources • Biomass, hydrogen • Massive potential for deployment of emerging carbon capture and storage technology in North Sea

4. STUC aspirations A growing renewables sector should: • Create quality, sustainable employment • …particularly in fragile remote economies • Reinvigorate Scottish manufacturing • Use existing skills base effectively • Develop advantage in skills of the future • Contribute to climate change targets

5. Policy Context • Economic and social policy • Scottish and UK Government energy policy • Climate Change (Scotland) Bill

6. Economic and Social Policy Scot Govt Economic Strategy Targets • To match GDP growth rate of small independent EU countries by 2017 • To raise Scotland’s GDP growth to the UK level by 2017 The ‘golden rules’ • Solidarity: to increase proportion of income earned by the lowest 3 income deciles as a group by 2017 • Cohesion: to narrow the gap in (labour market) participation between Scotland’s best and worst performing regions by 2017 • Sustainability: to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050

7. Energy Policy UK target • 20% of electricity supply from renewable energy from 2020 Scottish targets • 31% of electricity supply by 2011 • 50% of electricity supply by 2020 • 16,000 jobs in renewables by 2020

8. Climate Change (Scotland) Bill • Stage 3 debate taking place today • Interim target of 42% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 • 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050

9. Progress to date 1 • 3000 jobs • Total renewables capacity installed, consented or under construction is 5.5 GW – more than 31% of gross energy consumption • Whitelees – biggest onshore windfarm in Europe heading towards completion • Clyde – consent granted for 200 turbine onshore windfarm; guarantee of at least £200m of contracts for Scottish firms

10. Progress to date 2 • European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) test facility established in Orkney • Scottish marine energy developers recognised as world leaders • Sites identified and leasing programmes underway for tidal and offshore wind developments • Saltire Prize

14. Barriers 1 • Infrastructure – massive investment required to upgrade grid network and connect projects in remote areas • Regulatory framework – working against achievement of renewables targets and rural job creation • Capital – ongoing failure to provide patient, committed finance to growing, innovative firms

15. Barriers 2 • Absence of feed-in tariff – stifling progress on microgeneration • Skills – emerging constraints • Planning - under resourced Local Authority Planning Departments • Natura 2000 – ‘absolutist’ approach to implementation of Birds and habitats Directives • Nimby-ism

16. Conclusions • Employment dividend to date is insufficient to justify extravagant political rhetoric • Development must deliver quality jobs to Scotland’s fragile remote economies • Market fundamentalism continues to slow progress • Direct state role in resolving barriers is justified and indeed essential

17. sboyd@stuc.org.uk