SCOTLAND generated enough electricity from renewable sources last year to meet the equivalent of 90.1% of its total electricity consumption, according to latest figures.
In 2019, the country generated 30.5 TWh of electricity from renewable sources, 13.4% up on 2018, Scottish Government data showed.
This was enough to charge almost 6.7 billion mobile phones for a year and boil around 700 billion kettles.
The target is for 100% of the country’s electricity to be generated from renewable sources by 2020.
The Annual Energy Statement 2020 said that Scotland’s heat demand is still primarily made up from fossil fuels but progress on renewables has been made, with the amount of renewable heat generated in 2019 up 4.8% on the previous year.
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “This year’s energy statement shows that we are continuing to make strong progress towards building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy, and to meeting our world-leading climate change targets.
“In particular, we continue to make good progress in areas such as renewable electricity with, in 2019, Scotland’s renewable electricity generation having grown to such an extent that it was able to meet the equivalent of 90.1% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption, making 2019 another record-breaking year for the sector.
“However, to decarbonise our energy intensive industries, heat in buildings and transport through electrification and other means like hydrogen, we know we need to continue to grow our renewable electricity supplies further.
“Our recent Climate Change Plan update, published this week, contains more than 100 new policies and proposals to support Scotland’s green recovery and a just transition to net-zero.”
Overall, the amount of electricity, transport and heat energy produced in Scotland from renewable resources increased between 2017 and 2018 to 21.1%.
Fabrice Leveque, head of policy at WWF Scotland, said: “It’s great news to learn that Scotland’s generated enough electricity from renewable sources to meet nearly all our energy needs during 2019.
“We’re in the grips of a climate crisis and renewables will continue to play a vital role in powering the country, creating jobs and reducing climate emissions.
“Electricity will play a vital role in cleaning up our transport and heating, and we’ll need to build on this by expanding our use of all renewable sources in the coming years.”
Morag Watson, director of policy at Scottish Renewables, said: “The figures announced by Scottish Government today demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that renewable energy is now mainstream.
“Technologies like onshore and offshore wind, hydro power and solar are providing the equivalent of more than 90% of Scotland’s electricity demand, as well as providing environmental and economic benefits across the country.”
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