The announcement coincided with a move towards tweaking Scotland’s existing renewables incentive scheme for the sake of wave and tidal energy.
The proposed water bill will give Scottish Water, a water utility, legal authority to enter into partnerships with other firms to expand its renewable energy assets, such as hydroelectric power plants and wind farms.
«Currently, Scottish Water is the largest consumer of electrical power in Scotland. We intend to give it the power to instead become one of the largest generators of renewable electricity on its land,» energy minister Jim Mather said.
The bill rests on maximizing the momentum gained in developing Scotland’s vast marine energy resources. Mr. Mather said that the country holds around 25 percent of Europe’s offshore wind and tidal resource and 10 percent of that of wave.
First minister Alex Salmond told parliament that Scotland could become the world’s first hydro economy by wisely exploiting water to help drive growth.
At the same time, changing the incentive scheme’s provisions to allow projects that already receive rewards to still be eligible for government grants will help.
Britain’s renewables obligation scheme requires utilities to acquire an increasing proportion of their power from renewable sources, in exchange for incentives. The scheme has set a 15.4 percent renewable energy target by 2015.
The amount of subsidy given to a utility depends on how many renewable obligation certificates it has.
Under the proposal, wave energy generators will receive five certificates for each megawatt of energy they generate, while tidal energy generators will receive three certificates per megawatt. Currently, marine energy developers for the rest of Britain only receive two certificates per megawatt.
More than 12,000 jobs in marine renewable energy could contribute £2.5 billion ($3.85 billion) to Scotland’s economy by 2020, according to a government report published last year.
«Marine energy will be key to Scotland’s future energy mix and that’s why we changed our support mechanisms to give greater assistance to wave and tidal energy in Scotland than anywhere else in Britain,” said John Swinney, cabinet secretary for finance and sustainable growth.
