Scotland generated electricity from renewable sources last year to meet over 90% of the country’s total electricity consumption.
Output from renewable sources covered 90.1% of electricity consumption, the Scottish government said in its annual energy statement.
Overall, the amount of electricity, transport and heat energy produced in Scotland from green resources increased between 2017 and 2018 to 21.1%, it said.
Scottish Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse (pictured, right) said: “This year’s Energy Statement shows that we are continuing to make strong progress towards building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy and to meeting our world leading climate change targets.
“In particular, we continue to make good progress in areas such as renewable electricity with, in 2019, Scotland’s renewable electricity generation having grown to such an extent that it was able to meet the equivalent of 90.1% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption making 2019 another record breaking year for the sector.
“However, to decarbonise our energy intensive industries, heat in buildings and transport through electrification and other means like hydrogen, we know we need to continue to grow our renewable electricity supplies further.”
Wheelhouse noted that the government’s Climate Change Plan update, published this week, contains more than 100 new policies and proposals to support Scotland’s green recovery and a just transition to net zero.
He said: “The plan provides clear market signals which should give businesses the confidence to invest in a low carbon economy, hire and train people and grow the market in these areas.
“This will enable us to deliver emissions reductions in a way that is fair and leads to a thriving net zero economy in the future and to replicate, for other sectors like heat, the great success we have seen in electricity generation.”
Scottish Renewables director of policy Morag Watson said: “The figures announced by Scottish government today demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that renewable energy is now mainstream.
“Technologies like onshore and offshore wind, hydro power and solar are providing the equivalent of more than 90% of Scotland’s electricity demand, as well as providing environmental and economic benefits across the country.
“With some of the world’s most challenging climate change targets, much work still to do on removing the carbon from heating and the UN’s COP26 climate conference coming to Glasgow in 2021, we look forward to working with governments in London and Edinburgh to build on these figures to show Scotland can truly lead the world in renewable energy.”