Date: 09-Feb-10
Country: FRANCE
Author: Nina Sovich
PARIS - Scotland is on track to beat its target to get 31 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2011 and aims to one day generate all its power from green energies, the country's First Minister said Monday.
Alex Salmond, who heads the Scottish government and the National Party, was in Paris Monday to discuss the country's energy future with French oil and energy service companies.
In a joint interview with the CEO of French oil and gas engineering company Technip, Thierry Pilenko, Salmond laid out Scotland's progress in becoming a leader in renewable energy and his continued opposition to nuclear power.
The company has long worked with the Scottish government since it operates oil and gas pipelines in the North Sea.
"I'm in the fantastic position as a politician to be able to tell you we have already passed that target," Salmond said, referring to the 2011 goal.
Scotland will also likely meet its target of deriving 50 percent of its electricity consumption from renewables by 2020 and become the "green energy powerhouse of Europe," he said.
Salmond, who is a proponent of Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, said his party was committed to renewable energy as a way to ensure the country's energy security. Scotland will also have to cope in the coming decades with the maturing of North Sea oil and gas reserves, which could hurt local employment.
To offset such job losses, Salmond is betting on the renewable energy sector.
RENEWABLES Center
Scotland has built many wind farms, both on and offshore, in recent years, and also relies on hydropower. But it is primarily a hub for the traditional fossil fuel business: most of the United Kingdom's oil and gas reserves are off the Scottish coast and many energy companies are in Aberdeen.
Salmond said he hoped to turn Scotland not only into a net exporter of electricity, but also into an industrial and intellectual center for the renewable energy sector.
However, wind energy proponents complain the effort is being stymied by the UK's grid operator National Grid, which charges higher fees to Scottish wind farm operators due to their distance from population centres.
In November, the British energy regulator Ofgem gave the UK's three electricity transmission companies permission to invest an extra 1 billion pounds ($1.56 billion) in the grid. Ninety percent of that investment is earmarked for Scotland to connect its wind farms.
"We're looking to a new frontier...to create industrial teams as large as the oil and gas industry," said Salmond.
For its part, Technip wants to expand its renewables business, which now generates less than one percent of its revenues.
CEO Pilenko said Technip would open a renewable energy headquarters in Aberdeen.
Technip's expertise in dealing with large offshore projects in the North Sea would help it develop renewables, said Pilenko.
"We are leveraging everything we have done in the last 40 years in project management and the innovation of offshore operational infrastructure," said Pilenko.
(Editing by James Jukwey)
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