Senior government officials were using Scotland claims home up to 25 percent of European offshore wind potential for years. However new report from pro-union the analytical center “These Islands” refutes this figure, with ministers now acknowledge that this figure false and “requires updating”.
The “These Islands” report claims that real the figure is closer to 4-6 per cent and suggests that the Scottish government was trying to justify the claim with “Clearly miscalculated.”
The leader of the SNP in Westminster, Ian Blackford, echoed the claim. in house of communities last a week during the debate on Scottish independence and Scottish economy. In fact, the statistic was repeated three times times by three different SNP MPs, including their Deputy Westminster Leader, in that debate.
It has also used by constitution secretary Angus Robertson and SNP spokesman on Energy, Stephen Flynn, most recently in October. false the claim was also included in publication of National Strategy for Economic Transformation published by Keith Forbes in March.
Inside civil servants have also this figure is known to be unreliable. Government internal correspondence published in the account of these islands includes officials stating in In October 2020, that figure “proved to be very difficult to obtain”. One official claims that the 25 percent grade has “never, to my knowledge, been properly received.” Other adds in January last year that “we reworked these figures quite automatically, without checking them.”
sam taylor, who runs These islands, said role of civil service around repeated use of the figure was “particularly alarming”. He said: “Scotland has significant renewable resources and this is very good thing. But I greatly exaggerate the size of potential resource for political goals are not good thing and role of Scottish government civil service in all of this is especially true.
“A clearly overstated demand has been allowed in several official Scottish Government Publications over in last a decade and only asked the hard questions via freedom of The information put an end to it.
“But individual SNP politicians and the independence movement in general keep making claims. I wonder if they will now start talking about scotland share of European offshore wind resources in realistic terms”.
Claiming that the figure was correct when first calculated in 2010, a government spokesman acknowledged that now wrong and “requires updating”. They said: “Our rich natural resources, experience and proven path record in decarbonization makes Scotland the perfect place to become global power station of Renewable energy.
“ScotWind, the world’s largest floating offshore lease, round is a massive step forward in make an energy revolution with delivery ambitions 27.6 GW of power – Nearly triple our renewable energy production currently in operation.
“Statistics relating to Scotland, which has 25 per cent. of Europe’s offshore wind potential has been set out in publication of 2010 and was calculated exactly at that time. We acknowledge that changes in technology as well as use of nautical space mean that these statistics now require updating and will be carried out work to update figure. However, we are confident that Scotland remains at the forefront of emerging offshore wind power in Europe”.
