Energy Statistics for Scotland - Q4 2023

Renewable Electricity Capacity

Scotland’s capacity for electricity generation from renewable sources has increased substantially over the past 10 years (Figure 1) and currently stands at 15.3 GW – a 10% increase compared to 13.9 GW in 2022. The technologies with the largest capacity growth in 2023 were fixed offshore wind (818 MW) and onshore wind (510 MW).

Figure 1: renewable electricity capacity in Scotland (2013 - 2023)

The other category includes: floating offshore wind; wave & tidal; animal biomass; anaerobic digestion; sewage sludge digestion; energy from waste

As of the end of the end of December 2023, 517 renewable electricity generation projects with a potential estimated capacity of 25.9 GW are in the planning pipeline. The majority of pipeline projects are onshore wind (249) and solar photovoltaic (212). However, offshore and onshore wind projects make up the bulk of the estimated capacity (Figure 2).

Figure 2:  renewable electricity pipeline capacity in Scotland by planning stage and technology (as of end of December 2023)

The other category includes: biomass, waste, hydro and wave projects. Some anomalous entries for biomass generation projects have been removed from this analysis for quality assurance.