Scotland is kilometers ahead of the rest of the UK — and much of the rest of the world — in weaning itself off of fossil fuels.
Government figures show that a record-breaking 68.1% of Scotland’s energy consumption came from completely renewable sources last year. By contrast, only 23% of the rest of the UK’s energy came from completely renewable sources, according to The Independent.
“These figures show Scotland as a renewable energy powerhouse,” said Claire Mack, CEO of Scottish Renewables. “Scotland has an enormous renewable energy resource: our winds, waves, tides, rainfall and even our longer daylight hours are tremendous assets to the country, and renewable energy enables us to use them to produce direct economic and environmental benefits.”
“Scotland’s energy strategy recognizes and builds on our achievements to date and on our country’s capacity for innovation,” said Scotland’s energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse.
In recent years, Scotland has made consistently massive strides in its use of renewable energy. The record-setting 2017 was a 14-point jump from 2016, when 54% of Scotland’s energy came from renewable sources, according to The Independent.
Fifteen years ago, only 10% of Scotland’s energy use came from renewable sources, according to the Irish Times, leading experts to predict that the country is on pace to be consuming exclusively renewable energy by 2020.
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And it’s not only Scotland’s renewable energy consumption that’s turning heads. The country also produces an impressive amount of energy from green sources, much of which it exports to neighboring England.
Scotland sent 31% more green energy to England in 2017 than it did in 2016, according to the National. Energy generation from wind turbines shot up 34%, and hydro power generation was up 9%.
The European Union has set a goal of producing 20% renewable energy by 2020.
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