Posted on 01/03/2022 4:31:52 AM PST by Cronos
In 2011, Scotland set a target of reaching 100% clean electricity consumption in 2020. And last year, the country almost reached its target – 98.6% of gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources, according to the Scottish government’s December energy statement.
Scotland, which is working to achieve net zero by 2045 – a legally binding target – has one of the most ambitious climate targets in the world.
The BBC notes:
In 2019, Scotland met 90.1% of its equivalent electricity consumption from renewables, according to Scottish government figures.
The 100% target was set in 2011, when renewable technologies generated just 37% of national demand.
Cabinet secretary for net zero, energy and transport Michael Matheson said:
Scotland is leading the way internationally with our commitment to be net zero by 2045. This statement shows we are continuing to make good progress with the equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption being from renewable sources in 2020, which is up from 89.8% in 2019.
Whilst we do have many challenges ahead of us if we are going to meet our ambitious targets, we have laid the groundwork in 2021 for Scotland to take important leaps forward towards net zero.
I wonder how much generation was from wood pellets imported from the USA? They count as renewables.
But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To meet my 100% clean electricity requirement
Like China, Scots lie
“. . . with the equivalent of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption being from renewable sources . . .”
In this particular situation, what is the difference between “the *equivalent* of 98.6% of gross electricity consumption . . .” and just “ . . . 98.6% of gross electricity consumption . . .”?
The claim sounds like word m*sturbation to me.
I don’t think any real Scotsman believes this.
The comments underneath the article are very informative. Apparently Scotland sells a lot of surplus wind-generated electricity to England when the wind is blowing hard, but then has to import a lot of gas-generated electricity from England when it’s not blowing at all. They fudge the numbers to come up with that 98.6% by including the electricity that is generated in Scotland but used in England.
So a country the size of South Carolina goes carbon neutral BFD. That will have zero effect on planetary “climate”.
Actually, governments lie and distort about most everything. Mostly to enhance or protect themselves.
11 U.S. states that are larger than the entire U.K.
I imagine most, if not all, U.S. states are larger than just Scotland by itself.
Thanks - dug up the following (citation to follow later): “Scotland actually produces more electricity than it uses, including a substantial amount from fossil fuels and nuclear energy. In 2019, renewables accounted for 61% of electricity generated in Scotland, nuclear 25%, and gas and oil 13%”.
As you probably realize, most renewable sources (not all) are intermittent, and just about everybody who goes the renewable route needs some back-up - that’s the fossil fuels and the nukes. If one is into that, Scotland apparently does a pretty good job extracting energy from wind, dams, and tides, but like everybody else, they’re burning stuff when they really need to.
citation for comment 11: https://fullfact.org/environment/scotland-renewable-energy/
I may be wrong about this, but I believe the largest renewable source of electricity — by a wide margin — is hydroelectric power.
In fact, the Scottish Government estimates that, in 2020, 56% of the electricity consumed in Scotland came from renewable sources, 30% from nuclear and 13% from fossil fuels.
Burning wood for power to drive electrical generation plants, rather than coal or natural gas? The capability to strip out whole forests that cannot be regrown quickly enough to supply future needs, means that is a dead end. Not even counting the additional energy needed to harvest and transport that wood to the plant where it would be consumed.
The world is going to be relying on "fossil fuels" well into the 22nd Century, if not much longer that even that. Because "fossil fuels" are actually anything but that, most of the world's supply is actually produced by abiotic means.
Most crude oil is not made up of dinosaur soup, but from a witch's cauldron known as the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, or "Moho," is the boundary between the crust and the mantle.
Under the conditions there, carbon dioxide is a powerful solvent and acting like a liquid, interacts with superheated water, also acting like a liquid. This forms first methane, then as the reaction proceeds, longer and longer chains of hydrocarbons, on a continual basis. Some of this newly formed quantity of hydrocarbon compounds is forced into the sediment layers above the "Moho", and become the reservoirs of oil found by drilling, and extracted, in some instances, by fracking, as these sediment layers are very "tight".
So, then, is this not a "renewable" resource? Certainly way more reliable than wind or solar, both of which DEPEND on backup generation capability from something like natural gas-powered electric generators.
The other pertinent fact is that Scotland has a population of about 5.5 million - well less than that of New York City, as well as well less than the LA or Chicago or Houston metro areas - with a proportionately much larger land mass to support the energy generation for that population. Add to that the geographic characteristics that favor wind formation in much of the sparsely-populated portion of the country and one has a situation that is probably not readily duplicated in either the US or the more industrialized parts of Europe.
Usually when the enviro’s claim a substantial generation of power by renewables they mean hydro (even though most of them hate hydro), but if one can believe Wikipedia here (and I suspect they’re about right), in Scotland hydro is the second major renewable source, with about 5 times as much energy coming from wind. But again, they can depend on the hydro - the wind, not so much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Scotland
Post 13....In the USA, the program is to demolish dams.
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