Energy generated from renewables in Scotland could make it the world leader
Last year was “huge” for renewable energy a leading charity has said.
WWF Scotland said wind power produced the equivalent of 97% of Scotland's household electricity needs.
This figure is up by 16% on the previous year, the environmental charity announced.
Wind generated enough power to supply over 100% of Scottish household needs during six out of the 12 months – January, February, March, May, November, and December.
The charity released the figures from data compiled from the organisation WeatherEnergy.
Commenting on the data, WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks said: “Without doubt, 2015 was a huge year for renewables, with wind turbines and solar panels helping to ensure millions of tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions were avoided.
Overall wind power output broke all previous records and was up by almost a fifth - Lang Banks
“With 2016 being a critical year politically, we’d like to see each of the political parties back policies that would enable Scotland become the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation by 2030.
“December will be rightly remembered for the damage done by the extreme weather, so it won’t surprise many to learn it also turned out to be a record-breaking month for wind power output.
“For 2015 as a whole, thanks to an increase in installed capacity, overall wind power output broke all previous records and was up by almost a fifth year-on-year.”
Karen Robinson of WeatherEnergy said that following the recent Paris climate talks where there were calls for greater use of low-carbon energy sources, the data show that renewables are already playing a major role in Scotland’s, and the rest of the UK’s, overall energy mix.
“Despite misconceptions, Scotland also has massive potential for using solar power too,” she said. “The data clearly shows that there’s plenty of sunshine to meet a significant proportion of an average family’s electricity needs for the majority of months of the year. With hundreds of thousands of household roofs, it would not take much to tap more of the sun’s power.”
WWF is calling on all political parties to put forward policies to make Scotland the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation by 2030.
