Renewable electricity growth

Scotland’s capacity for electricity generation from renewable sources increased by 10% within a year, with the largest growth coming in offshore and onshore wind installations.

New figures for 2023 show Scotland continues to generate more electricity than it uses, with net exports to other UK nations worth an estimated £1.5 billion thanks to record production levels in the second half of the year.

More than three quarters of the renewable electricity generated in Scotland in 2023 came from wind technologies, while the second largest producer was hydro technologies at almost 14%.

Scottish Energy Statistics for the final quarter of 2023 detail 15.3 Gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity capacity operating in Scotland, with a further 25.9 GW in the planning pipeline from 517 projects. This compared to 13.9 GW of capacity operating in 2022.

Energy Minister Gillian Martin said:

“A 10% increase in capacity and net exports worth an estimated £1.5 billion shows that the Scottish Government’s focus on growing the green economy is paying off.

“We will ensure Scotland continues to capitalise in a sustainable way on its natural resources to underpin the just transition to net zero, provide jobs, benefit communities and support economic growth.

“To help Scotland reap the economic benefits of this expansion in renewables we are allocating £66.9 million in 2024-25 to kickstart our commitment to invest £500 million over the next five years in Scotland’s offshore wind supply chain.”

Background

Scottish Energy Statistics for Quarter 4 2023.

Provisional UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions Stats 2023.

One Gigawatt of power is equal to one billion watts and can power between 300,000 - 750,000 homes, depending on the source of the energy and consumption of the home.

Electricity generation from renewable sources in Scotland in 2023 was 33.3 Terawatt-hours (TWh). This was a 7% drop from 2022 – largely due to adverse weather conditions – but record levels of renewable generation in the second half of 2023 mitigated this. A Terrawatt-hour is a unit of energy which represents one trillion watts of power used for one hour.

Scotland’s net exports of electricity to other UK nations in 2023 amounted to 15.9 TWh.