9/29/2018

SCOTLAND EMBRACES GREEN ENERGY


FUELLING INDEPENDENCE? Scotland's oil hub embraces green energy.

SCOTLAND'S leader Nicola Sturgeon launched on Friday last, a major renewable energy project  boasting the world's most powerful wind turbines, which she hopes will also propel the  independence ambitions of her nationalist party.

The 11 191-metre high high turbines in the waters of Aberdeen Bay will eventually produce 312 GWh of power - enough to power 80,000 households - helping to reduce Scotland's reliance on its oil industry.

''Scotland is a world leader in energy and that is good for our present and our future,'' whatever that maybe,'' Sturgeon told Reuters.

Standing on a ferry underneath the churning blades of the new European Offshore Wing Deployment Centre [BOWDC], which is run by Swedish utility Vattenfall  [VATN. UL]

The Scotland National Party she leads, which is seeking to maintain its drive for independence from the United Kingdom, has embraced renewable power as  the centre of  the energy policy.

The party's emphasis on optimistic-looking future  oil revenues was seen by many as a key-weakness  in the failed campaign to win an independence referendum in 2014.

An SNP study published year removed oil  from the party's  baseline plan for the economy, describing it instead as a ''bonus'', while renewables  were seen as one of  Scotland's  economic motors, with food and drink and finance.

At the same time, renewable projects such as EODCW enhance the SNP's appeal to the  61 percent  of  Scottish voters   who think climate change as an urgent concern, according to survey of households published by the Scottish government last week.

Sturgeon wants 50 percent of all of Scotland's  energy to  come from renewables by 2030, compared with an EU target of at least 27 percent.

Scotland's energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse, said the renewable power and  low carbon sector  provided 49,000 jobs in Scotland, compared with 115,000  in oil and gas, but the difference was narrowing.[Agencies]

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