Scotland Produced Enough Wind Energy To Power Every Home In October

[Denzil_DC]

14. I think that's highly arguable

(and that's without being an independence hardliner).

Scotland contributes disproportionately to the UK's overall energy supply in terms of hydro and pumped hydro storage, aside from other sources, and that applies to wind as well:

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published statistics showing all Scotland’s onshore wind farms had a maximum capacity of 3,808 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2012.

This total was 34 per cent higher than the 2,837MW total in the last quarter of 2011. Scotland’s total capacity is now nearly double that of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Back in 2013, the BBC reported:

Scotland continues to produce more energy than it uses, with more than 26% of electricity generated here last year being exported, figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed.

Nuclear power provided 34.4% of electricity generated in Scotland in 2012, while 29.8% came from renewables, 24.9% came from coal, 8% from gas and 2.8% from oil and other sources.

The proportion of power in Scotland generated from renewable sources was significantly higher than the rest of the UK.

The Scottish government has committed (whether it can deliver is another matter) to getting 100% of Scotland's energy supply from renewable energy by 2020. In contrast, the UK government has committed to meeting just 15% of the UK's needs from renewables by 2020, apparently being more inclined to kneejerk in the direction of fracking, which isn't panning out so well at the moment.

Given the richness of resources the British Isles has access to, being an archipelago with massive potential for wind, wave, and tidal power (Scotland alone is estimated to be blessed with 25% of Europe's potential tidal power and 10% of its potential wave power), in addition to as yet more immature renewable energy resources like geothermal, biofuels, and waste-to-energy that need more investment, it seems like a no-brainer.

If the UK as whole had jumped on that bandwagon 30 years ago when Salter first developed his Duck, rather than pouring money into nuclear (which has proven a poor investment eve in terms of baseload) and relatively short-term stopgaps like gas, the economy would have benefited enormously, not to mention the environment. It's not too late to change course, but time's running out.