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Scotland and Wales go for renewables, not nuclear energy

Who wants nuclear power?  Not Wales, or Scotland….they want renewables  environmentalresearchweb, 13 June 2010, The Welsh Assembly Government’s new Energy Policy Statement ‘A Low Carbon Revolution’, sets out an approach to accelerating the transition to a low carbon energy economy in Wales, focusing on efficiency measures and the use of indigenous renewable forms of energy such as marine, wind, solar and biomass. It claims that by 2025 around 40% of electricity in Wales could come from marine sources and a third from wind…….
Although its renewable resource may not be as large as that in Scotland, Wales sees no need to develop new nuclear plants. Scotland of course has been making that case for some while, with the ruling Scottish National Party being implacable opposed to new nuclear, much to the annoyance of the Westminster government. Equally resolutely, the Scottish government has backed renewables. As a result, Scotland now generates around 30% of its electricity demand from renewables, with the contribution from on-land wind (with over 2GW of capacity in place) having overtaken that from hydro, and by 2020 the intention is to reach at least 50%, with wave and tidal power making major contributions. Scotland’s marine renewable resource is certainly very large, SNP leader Alex Salmond described Pentland firth as making Scotland ‘the Saudi Arabia of marine energy’.
1.2GW of wave and tidal current projects has now got the go ahead in Pentland Firth and Orkney waters and the potential has been put at up to 20GW or more……….

……..Meanwhile Scotland is sticking to its anti-nuclear position. A 126-page report ‘Determining and Delivering on Scotland’s Energy Future’, from the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee., say: “Scotland does not need a new generation of nuclear power stations to be constructed”. Instead, the committee calls for “markedly” increased investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fossil fired thermal plants, and if necessary, the construction of a new generation of larger fossil-plants with future carbon capture.

Who wants nuclear power? Part 1 (environmentalresearchweb blog) – environmentalresearchweb

June 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK