Scotland responds to energy bill

11 Jan 2008 10:26 AM Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney today commented on John Hutton's statement on nuclear power and publication of the UK Energy Bill.

Mr Swinney said:

"John Hutton knows well the strength of feeling in Scotland against developing unwanted and unnecessary new nuclear power stations. The UK Energy Bill provisions on nuclear power do not extend to Scotland. This is a great success for the Scottish Government.

"New statistics show that Scotland in 2006 supplied 92.5% of its energy needs from fossil fuels, renewables and pumped hydro storage. The risks and uncertainties of new nuclear power, in terms of waste disposal, decommissioning, security and health concerns, or cost, are obviously far too great.

"The Bill is actually a further, strong argument for the full devolution of responsibility for energy, so that we can take the right decisions for the people of Scotland. For example, it proposes both the UK and Scottish Governments having competence on offshore carbon storage and renewable electricity, which is unnecessarily complicated.

"Our agenda is clear - Scotland does not want or need new nuclear power. We have massive potential for alternative clean, green energy. The installed renewables generating capacity already exceeds that of nuclear. In 2006, overall electricity generation in Scotland increased by nearly a tenth, while electricity generated from nuclear power in Scotland decreased by a quarter.

"Through the further development of new technologies, like carbon capture and storage, we can build a low carbon future without having to deal with the legacy of toxic radioactive for thousands of years.

"And nuclear will not only come at a cost to the development of new technologies, it will hit consumers in the pocket. Scots now face the prospect of increased electricity prices to fund the decommissioning of English nuclear power stations. Charges on suppliers to pay for future decommisisoning will be passed on to consumers - Scotland will pay for this folly, despite our clear position on resisiting new nuclear power.

"On the carbon storage and gas storage provisions in the Bill, I will be looking for full discussion with the UK Government."

The latest Energy Trends Report was published on 3 January 2008. See:

http://stats.berr.gov.uk/energystats/etdec07.pdf

It shows that in Scotland, between 2005 and 2006:

* Electricity generated in Scotland increased by 9% (4,363 Gigawatt hours GWh) to 53,609 GWh
* Electricity generated from nuclear power decreased by 24%, mainly due to unplanned outages at nuclear stations. As a result, nuclear's share of generation fell from 38% to 26% in Scotland. In 2006/07, Torness and Hunterston B were shutdown intermittently. At Hunterston, Reactor 3 was off for a total of 353 days. Reactor 4 was off for 244 days. Currently Hunterston is operating at 70% capacity.
* Electricity generated by renewable sources (apart from hydro natural flow) increased by 46%
* Scotland in 2006 could have supplied 92.5% of its energy needs from fossil fuels, renewables and pumped storage, and increase from 72.9% in 2005
* Continuation of the rate of growth in these other renewables would result in achievement of Scottish renewable electricity targets of 31% by 2011 and 50% by 2020

Installed renewables capacity in Scotland is now approximately 2,731 Megawatts (MW), while nuclear capacity is 2,400 MW.