Excellent news for Glasgow yesterday that Scottish and Southern Energy had agreed to join with The University of Strathclyde (renowned for wind power research) in Glasgow to create a new Centre of Engineering Excellence for Renewable Energy (CEERE). The new facility will primarily become a new a new research and management centre for wind farm projects.
SSE Manging Director Ian Marchant:
“Our Centre of Excellence which will be known as CEERE will play a crucial part in helping SSE to realise its renewable energy goals in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, helping to secure energy supplies and contributing to the development of a lower carbon economy.
“Having considered all of the options in mainland Europe, Ireland and the UK, we have settled on Glasgow as the best location for CEERE, and the city’s own sustainable energy ambitions also make it a very appropriate choice.
“Working with the University of Strathclyde, and with the support of the Scottish Government, we will create and secure several hundred skilled jobs for Scotland.
“Scotland’s ambition to become a leader in renewable energy is well known and we are delighted to be making this investment in Scotland. We’re very positive about the prospects for creating new jobs to harness Europe’s renewable energy resources and the potential make a significant contribution to the achievement of Scotland’s ambitions.”
Strathclyde University Principal (and Professor) Jim McDonald said:
“If we are to address the challenges of climate change, rapid and widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies is critical.
“The new partnership reflects Scotland’s potential to be at the forefront of the UK and European renewable energy sectors, creating new jobs and research and development opportunities.”
The Scottish Government is investing £2.8m into the scheme, First Minister Alex Salmond spoke on the new energy centre yesterday.
Good news for Glasgow and Scotland – this is a considerable commitment to the green economy and hopefully another step on the way for Scotland to become a true renewable energy hub.
Of the ‘big six’ energy companies that were involved in the tendering process, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy won a share of the contracts that were available. Scottish Power will supply power to major public buildings within Scotland, and SSE will supply metered council housing with green electricity.
Both companies have insisted that the energy for these projects will be produced from 100% Scottish renewable sources.
Scotland is seeking to cut emissions by 80% before 2050.
Glendoe Power Station
Scottish and Southern Energy will generate its power from its big new hydro project at Glendoe to supply its side of the energy deal.
The 100MW capacity Glendoe power station, built adjacent to Loch Ness, is the first conventional hydro-electric pwer station to be built for 50 years. The SSE contract also provides access to low carbon and renewable technologies such as combined heat and power, solar and biomass.
Scottish Government Finance minister John Swinney outlined the main principles behind the deal:
On top of saving money this contract will create a greener Scotland. The public sector needs to show leadership if we are to achieve the ambitions of our Climate Change Bill.
The contracts will help public bodies address emissions from energy use through a range of energy efficiency measures, access to renewable generation sources and opportunities to sell green electricity back to the Grid. The vast majority of public bodies have recognised these benefits and have signed up to this deal.
Is this deal good for Scotlands energy future? Please let us know your opinions…………
Glasgow has been giving permission to build a £3,000,000 wind farm that will be the largest yet to be built in Europe, the farm will host 140 huge wind turbines that will pump 322 megawatts of power into the national grid, enough megawatts to power over 200,000 homes – the equivalent of supplying the hole of Glasgow with Green Electricity, the farm will be built on moorland next to East Kilbride and will cover an area of 7.2 miles by 4.3 and wile there has been some opposition due to the impact they will have on the area the consensus has been positive and when the turbines are in operation in 2009 they will remove the strain on other power sources
Glasgow builds biggest wind farm in Europe
along with 650,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide it’s no wonder there is a lot of backing for this project to happen. There will also be a visitor center, cycle route and a walkway for tourists and locals alike.
There is another 24 wind farms under construction and another 77 with planning permission in Scotland so we should be well placed to bypass our energy targets of 5.5Gigawatts that will supply our great nation with 31% of renewable energy each year.
We’ve recently came across this extremely cynical post on green electricity from Fred Pearce over at The Guardian. He slaughters the majority of the UK biggest energy suppliers, claiming that the green and clean electricity and gas tariffs that they offer are nothing more than a smokescreen.
We tend to feel that in some cases Mr Pearce may indeed have a point. However, you cannot possibly blame green conscious consumers for signing up to these tariffs – many of them will have no idea as to the technical aspects of the energy generation process. They simply wish to lower their carbon footprint and increase the energy efficiency of their homes.
Renewable electricity is not just a fashion trend it’s here to stay. Business are encouraged to go green by government.
Governments across the world have been urging businesses to lead the way in the green revolution, so far the larger companies particularly ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury etc., have been slightly more proactive in this step than smaller business this is because it is perceived that ‘going green’ means costing money. Experts are starting to show this is not true and that is can actually be cost effective to go green.
Dr Martin Gibson, director of Envirowise states that companies “who take action for the first time can identify savings of up to £250 per employee in office-based companies – or as much as £1,000 per employee for manufacturers.”(BBC, 2007). This makes renewable energy and green electricity an affordable and cost effective way to run a business.
