Responding to the new UK Energy Bill set out in Westminster by Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, said:
“It is a long time since a UK Bill was introduced that will have such important consequences for Scotland, given the importance of renewable energy to our economy – today and in the future.
“There is still a huge amount of detail to be agreed but today’s announcement puts in place the resources required for the UK to hit its 30 per cent renewable electricity target by 2020 – and for Scotland to meet its 100 per cent target. As such, it is an important milestone on the way to a more sustainable energy mix for the country.
“We have always said the Electricity Market Reform could ‘make or break’ the industry, but after two years of uncertainty we finally have the main parts of the framework in place to secure the investment required to grab the significant opportunities that lie ahead for us.”
He added: “The need for this Bill is simple: the cheapest forms of electricity generation today are the most polluting and the main source of the UK’s climate change emissions. Unless government intervenes to ensure the building of more renewables we will end up not just with higher bills as a result of rising gas prices, we will also end up with ever-rising carbon emissions.
“DECC has said clearly that the package of measures will mean keeping energy bills lower than they otherwise would be if we continued to rely on the current energy mix.
“Scottish Renewables will continue to work with DECC officials to make sure that the Bill meets its objectives for important technologies to Scotland’s economic ambitions, including offshore wind, biomass, hydro and wave and tidal,” Mr Stuart concluded.
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Press release, November 29, 2012; Image: scottishrenewables