Powering Scotland

The report recommends that energy powers should be formally devolved to Holyrood so that the Scottish Government can formulate policy that meets the country’s needs and supports a policy environment that encourages innovative, low carbon sources of energy to accommodate new and emerging technologies that can make a significant economic development and environmental impact, including carbon capture and storage.

This would include:-

• increased support for research and development;
• a strategy for skills provision from universities and colleges;
• a framework for renewable development eg. port, testing and manufacturing facilities;
• accelerated planning arrangements for renewable projects;
• investment in domestic grid to facilitate an increase in new electricity generating capacity, distributed across Scotland;
• support for a wider European grid to facilitate a competitive Europe-wide market in electricity supply;
• access to grid at prices that do not discourage investment.

Reform Scotland believes that if these policies are carried out and the Scottish Government’s ambition of reaching its 100 per cent renewable target by 2020 is met, Scotland could earn £2 billion a year exporting electricity and become a world leader in new-energy technology.