24 Sep 2010 10:09:10
Scotland raises renewable energy target to 80%
First minister Alex Salmond has announced that he is raising Scotland's renewable energy target by 30 percent.
In 2007, the Scottish government set itself the aim of producing 50 percent of its energy from low carbon sources by the year 2010. This target has now been increased to 80 percent.
The government calculated that there does not need to be any significant change to policy, planning or the regulatory framework in the country to reach the new target.
Mr Salmond said that, by 2020, it is possible that 60,000 jobs will have been created in the low carbon industries.
He added that Scotland already boasts "a quarter of Europe's potential wind and tidal energy capacity and a tenth of its wave resource".
"Given the scale of lease agreements now in place to develop offshore wind, wave and tidal projects over the next decade it is clear that we can well exceed the existing 50 percent target by 2020," Mr Salmond said.
The target is far in excess of that from the UK government, which is aiming to generate just 15 percent of its energy from renewables by the end of the next decade.
