Scottish government’s draft energy strategy to 2050 has been deemed as ‘clear, aspirational and therefore challenging to do’ by Neil Kermode, Managing Director of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).
Kermode continued by saying that the draft strategy sets out the landscape in which the changes need to happen, according to Scottish Renewables.
The draft Scottish Energy Strategy was published on January 24, setting out a vision for 2050 that revolves around low carbon energy at affordable prices to consumers in all parts of Scotland.
Kermode said: “The draft Scottish Energy Strategy is excellent as it joins the dots together on renewables, transport and heat and shows a transition away from fossil fuels to a sustainable economy. It is clear, aspirational and therefore challenging to do.
“At EMEC we are building the means to take un-exportable tidal power and turn it into hydrogen which we will use to power ferries, cars and anything else we can.
“All of this is building local capacity and skills that we are already exporting from the islands. It all maps perfectly onto many of the underpinning principles of the UK’s Industrial Strategy too: low-carbon technologies, developed for local use, in areas that are not the South West, and in which we have a world lead, and export market. What’s not to like?”
Jonny Clark, Managing Director of Edinburgh consultancy ITPEnergised said the strategy must focus on ‘transcending relatively short-term political horizons’, while Crispin Matson, UK Head of Energy at international engineering practice Ramboll, focused on the need to remove carbon from UK’s heat sector.
The comments come ahead of Scottish Renewables’ annual conference to be held in Edinburgh on March 21-22, 2017.