How Green is Your Salmond?

While I'm more that glad to hear Alex Salmond say that Scotland should be fully supplied by renewable energy by 2025. But it flies in the face of his demands just last month to benefit from the £242bn of tax revenue from the North Sea over the next 30 years, by devolving that tax raising power.

You see it is all well and good wanting to be 100% renewable in fifteen years Mr Salmond, but you are looking at benefiting from a carbon-burning economy for twice that length of time. The problem is of course that since the 1970s part of the SNP cry for Independence is that it is Scotland's oil. The revenue from that oil will fund their independent Scotland. Therefore the SNP are not the green party they are making out to be.

The Liberal Democrats had set target of 2050 for 100% renewables in our last Scottish election manifesto, a figure that we also pledged across the UK in our 2010 manifesto. It was a target we had set with intermediary steps along the way as part of a detailed roadmap to getting there. The pledge from Salmond today cuts 62.5% further off what other parties have said is even an ambitious target, ironically even the Greens only talk about a low-carbon Scotland on their website and have no aim for 100% renewables.

I have to ask myself has Salmond enquired what figures the other parties have and then decided to halve the most ambitious (although through bad maths that should have been 2030)? He has also increase the 2020 target from 50% to 80%. I've yet to see a breakdown of his objectives, conversion and payment plan to achieve this. Figure indicate that renewable energy in Scotland contributed 22% of the total in 2008 (up from 20.2% the year before) with an interim target of 31% for next year.

These are aggressive targets but I'm wondering are they attainable of are these just a promise ready for next May, like the many promises that the SNP have already failed to keep from May 2007?

Scotland Capable of 700% Renewables

There is a report which shows that Scotland is capable in the next 40 years of providing 7 times the energy requirements it needs through renewable energy.

In the report from the Offshore Valuation Group that by harnessing 20,000 offshore wind, wave and tidal devices would acheive this. There would be an export of surplus energy to the rest of the UK or Europe and 50,000 jobs created.

Of course such benefits need investment as much as £4bn a year just in Scotland.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said:

"There has never been a clearer and more dramatic picture of the scale of the renewable resources around our seas and coasts.

"Not only does this offer a huge potential cut in carbon emissions, this is the biggest single economic opportunity for Scotland in coming years."

We can with the combination of renewables on offer be a fully renewable powered nation with reliable supply by 2050, as the Liberal Democrat manifesto promised. It is reckoned that 11,400 giant offshore wind turbines, about 4,000 wave machines and 5,000 tidal generation devices would deliver this potential.

Is Recession Going to Suffocate Earth?

The news that Iberdrola Renewables are to slash their investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million, is possibly a worrying sign that the financial mess we have got into may have more damaging effects to our world than merely in its pocket.

Iberdrola are one of the world's largest investors in wind farms, BP and Shell have also shelved of pulled out of projects in recent months including the Thames Estuary porject. But the economic downturn compounded with problems of access to the grid and planning delays is making the UK a place that the international leaders are shying away from investing in.

Xabier Viteri, chief of Iberdrola Renewables, whose Spanish parent owns ScottishPower, blamed the economic crisis for the move but added that problems in Britain could force his company to consider investing elsewhere.

However, fair play to Ed Milliband in part. The energy minister earlier this week equated opposition to wind farms as "socially unacceptable . . . like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing". I say only in part as the Minister has picked up the Labour myopia when it comes to renewables and focuses only on wind and not on developing a balanced portfolio of renewable energy sources, both to cover outages and to spread the load. He also tends to look at large micro projects to the disregard or micro generation or small scale projects to assist the effort against climate change.

The Arabia of Renewables

Today marks the day that the Pentland Firth is being opened up by the Crown Estate to developers seeking to build marine renewable schemes in the area. Up to 700 megawatts of power is expected to be created by the area by 2020.

The Pentland Firth is the stretch of water off the north east tip of mainland Britain where the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea collide between the mainland and Orkney. It is the greatest potential for harnessing of wave energy but other main potentials exist at the ends of the Irish Sea, the Bristol Channel and English Channel. The last of course is least likely to be exploited imminently due the pressures of this as a shipping lane.

The move to harness the UK's maritime currents though overdue is welcome as we seek to get a sustainable, sustained alternative to fossil fuels generating our power needs through a balanced portfolio of renewable sources. Tidal power is more reliable than wind generation and adds to the ability to sustain renewable capability. While it is liable to be the big projects that first garner attention in the Pentland Firth this development of technology will hopefully lead to more micro marine projects as efficiency is increased.

Room for More Hydro-Electric Generation

I've long held the belief that small scale renewable projects as well as the mass scale ones is the best way forward to help reduce our reliance on carbon based energy generation. Therefore I'm glad to see that the Forum for Renewable Energy Development has reported that an extra 650MW of Hydro power can be produced by hundreds of small scale projects.

That's about 50%, or 600,000 extra homes (equivalent of Edinburgh) of what is currently produced primarily through the big dams up in the Highland Glens, even before the new Glendoe facility comes on line next year. Smaller schemes do not need to flood valleys, they use existing weirs of can use the natural down flow of rivers with minimal effect.

Like wind water is one resource we very rarely run out of here in Scotland and I'm glad to see the Government at least getting encouraged about the scheme to produce more renewable energy.

Moray MSP Caught in Green Lie

The SNP at their recent conference moved into the green arena and echoed Liberal Democrat calls for micro-generation of renewable energy.

However, the MSP for Moray decided he would back up these calls with action. He invited the press to his home in Forres to witness solar panels being installed on his home. He claimed in his press notice that he was the first MSP to install micro-renewable generators at home.

Whoops! He should have asked around a little more because without any fanfare Andrew Arbuckle the Liberal Democrat MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife has had them on his Fife cottage for 5 years. Also mentioned were two of the Green members also have had wind turbines constructed near their homes which supply the excess to the national grid.

So congratulations to Mr Lochhead for catching up, but no praise for trying to be a massive self publicist to boost the green credentials of a party playing catch up on action.

Green Men Speak with Forked Tongue

Oh dear they claim to talk the talk but clearly neither of them walk the walk.

David Chamelons new green caring Conservatives clearly are not even prepared to talk about key issues. The had agreed to discuss environmental policies with the Liberal Democrats but when they failed to commit on issues such as nucleur power and climate change levy Sir Menzies Campbell pulled the Lib Dems out of the discussions.

Tony Blair doesn't fare any better this morning. The Soctsman reports that the Environment Agency are upset that he is not looking at a technology neutral approach to cutting carbon ommissions. With Nuclear Blairs favouring of new nucleur power stations the agency is concerned that all types of low-carbon power generation, including also wind, wave, biomass, geothermal and solar, are being overlooked.

Mr Clive Bates of the Environment Agency says:

"[Mr Blair] amy not be listening to our advice.

We are concerned about the displacement effect of a large programme of investment in one capital-intensive technology like nucleur may have on energy efficiency and renewable technology."

The agency's warning was echoed by Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, who yesterday told an audience of business leaders:

"Investment in nuclear will discourage investment in other technologies that could supply capacity."

With the news that Scotland is ahead of reaching its renewable energy generation target and England and Wales lagging behind it is clear that only with Liberal Democrats in power can people get a government that actually has an impact on the environment. The only difference that Scotland has is the Liberal Democrat thrust that green issues affect all areas of goverenance and as such have got this included in every area of Scottish policy making.