Potential for green energy in Scotland huge

The First Minister, Alex Salmond has claimed that Scotland has the potential to become the world leader in the war against carbon emissions by generating ten times as much electricity from renewable sources as the country requires.

The First Minister added that Scotland held so much potential in the renewable energy sector that the country could manage to not only be self-reliant but generate enough surplus electricity to power the whole of Britain.

The First Speech was delivering a speech to the National Geographic Society in Washington in the final of three speeches he has given in the course of the Scotland Week events.

Alex Salmond estimated that the potential for renewable energy production could be as high sixty gigawatts which was ten times what the country requires at during the peak periods.

The First Minister also stated that the Scottish Government would provide ten million pounds to sponsor the world’s largest award for innovation in the generation of marine energy, the Saltire Prize.

Alex Salmond added that the Saltire Prize would be given to a firm coming up with the most appropriate way of changing wave or tidal power into electricity.

The criteria for the award will now be decided upon by a specialist committee, comprising of the chief scientific adviser of Scotland, Prof. Anne Glover and the head of global missions at National Geographic, Terry Garcia.

There have been other awards established in efforts to fight global warming and they have include Sir Richard Branson’s  Virgin Earth Challenge, US Congress’ H Prize on hydrogen technology and X Prize Foundation’s Prize on exploration of fuel efficiency.

www.nationalgeographic.co.uk