Source · Select Committees · Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Paragraph: 7
The potential scale of renewable energy in Scotland is huge.
Conclusion
The potential scale of renewable energy in Scotland is huge. The abundance of natural resources can benefit individuals, organisations, and businesses across the UK. We welcome the targets set by the UK Government for net zero and look forward to seeing how the overarching net zero strategy will impact the renewable energy sector in Scotland and look forward to seeing how this will be reflected in the upcoming Spending Review.
Paragraph Reference:
7
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The UK Government is working closely with partners in the devolved administrations to achieve our climate goals. The Government’s net zero target covers the whole UK, and all four parts of the UK have an integral role to play in delivering the Government’s carbon budgets leading up to 2050. As the Committee is aware, the Contracts for Difference (CfD) is the Government’s main mechanism for supporting the deployment of renewable technologies across Great Britain. The scheme has been hugely successful in bringing forward deployment whilst significantly reducing cost. CfD auctions (together with the bespoke CfD contracts signed in the early days of the scheme) have seen the award of c.13GW of offshore wind and c.16GW of other renewable technologies, including onshore wind and solar–with Scotland benefitting significantly from the CfD scheme. 20 of the 58 projects awarded CfDs to date are in Scotland. This represents 34% of all CfD projects and 21% of total CfD capacity (around 3.4GW of nearly 16GW awarded contracts to date). The Prime Minister’s announcement of 6 October 2020 committed to holding the next CfD allocation round in December 2021 and set out how it will be our biggest yet, aiming to support up to 12GW capacity of renewable electricity. This will support all countries in Great Britain and help us on a pathway to eliminate our contribution to global warming. In addition, the Net Zero Strategy, published 19 October 2021, outlines the Government’s measures to transition to a green and sustainable future, helping businesses and consumers to move to clean power while supporting hundreds of thousands of well-paid jobs and leveraging up to £90 billion of private investment across the whole of the UK by 2030. Building on the landmark Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, our Net Zero Strategy will drive forward our ambition to reach net zero and level up the UK by supporting up to 190,000 jobs in the middle of the 2020s and up to 440,000 jobs in 2030. These jobs will be spread across the UK–with specialists in low carbon fuels in Northern Ireland and low carbon hydrogen in Sheffield; electric vehicle battery production in the North-East of England; more engineers in Wales; and more offshore wind technicians in Scotland.