Renew On Line (UK) 50

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 150 July-Aug 2004

13. Scotland invests to save energy...

The Scottish Executive is to invest £20 million in energy efficiency which it hopes will help save up to £70m over the next five years for spending on schools, health and other public services across Scotland. Announcing the new scheme Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace said: “This is classic spend to save scenario. By spending a significant sum up front the Executive will enable the public sector to save much more and to re-invest that money in front-line services. It is also an excellent way of enabling the public sector to lead by example- demonstrating to the public and businesses that energy efficiency policies are practical and deliver quick tangible benefits.”

The ‘revolving’ fund is worth £20m over two years and is expected to yield savings of up to £70m over the next five years and £30m a year thereafter. Wallace continued: “The major part of the money saved will be available to be ploughed back into front line services, while some will be recycled to fund future energy efficiency projects. This fund will build on existing good practice, accelerating the pace of change”. 

Possible investment option include:

• changing to more energy efficient light bulbs
• Improving lighting and heating control systems
• Installing more energy efficient boilers
• installing combined heat and power systems
  loft and cavity wall installation

The public sector uses 5% of the energy in the UK. It is estimated that local authorities and Scottish Water could cut their energy consumption by 20% over five years, and health boards by 15 %, if they implement the new proposals. Carbon emissions would also be reduced by around 100,000 tonnes per year.

* Woking Borough Councils ambitious energy programme was funded in a similar way, via initial council investment in energy efficiency and then a recycled fund using the savings for new projects: see the Groups section in Renew 150.

 ...but new renewables hit connection problem

According to Earthed (April) ‘a de-facto moratorium on new renewable generation is in place over large areas of Scotland because projects that have already been proposed have reached the limit of the system capacity’.

 They say that Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy, which operate and maintain Scotland’s transmission and distribution systems and are responsible for connecting new generation, have so many projects proposing to connect to the system that ‘additional transmission and distribution capacity is needed before more can join the queue’. However, with some new grid links, for example in the Cairngorms National park area, meeting with local objections Earthed thought that the prospects were not looking good.