Sustainable Heat Key for Scotland

Januray 2008 will be remembered as perhaps the most historic month in the renewables industry in Scotland.

Legislators came out with three proposals – the European Commission’s energy plan, the UK government’s energy bill and the Scottish Government’s draft National Planning Framework – all aimed at tackling climate change.

The EC plans said renewables should account for 15 per cent of the UK’s energy generation by 2020.. Heat is extremely important as it represents 50 per cent of Scotland’s energy use .

Some of the UK’s leading experts will look at the issue at Scottish Renewables’s conference in Edinburgh on 19-20 March. Scottish Renewables is under no illusion about how difficult this is, but has consistently argued that governments both the UK and Scottish governments must promote sustainable heat solutions.

There has been some work on fuel poverty and energy conservation and a small amount of financial support for micro- renewables.  However, the approach has been bit by bit and has not, until relatively recently, considered how to mainstream renewables into the heat market.

Heat used in Scotland accounts for over a third of all carbon emissions from the energy sector, with a little under a third for electricity use and a third for transport. Clearly, Scottish lawmakers view an energy and transport policy that focuses on electricity almost to the exclusion of heat and expects vehicle miles travelled to increase in the coming decades as an unbalanced energy strategy.

www.scottishrenewables.com