Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The independent research will be unveiled as the renewable energy industry gathers for the organisation's annual conference in Edinburgh from today.

But the report will be accompanied by warnings that government red tape could stop the new renewable heat industry in its tracks.

Conducted by IPA Economics for Scottish Renewables, the research states that a massive growth in the installation of technologies like wood fuel, heat pumps and solar technology will be required to meet Scottish Government heat energy targets being set for 2020.

It concludes that investment would need to be in the order of £2.5 billion between now and 2020, and will create or secure 2,000 jobs in Scotland from sales, installation and maintenance.

Jason Ormiston, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: "The challenges to deliver green heat targets are considerable but if we are able to generate 11% of our heat from renewable sources by 2020 then the economic benefits are significant."

He added: "The IPA Economics report goes to 2020; Scotland will need to go beyond this date and so the long term economic benefits will be even greater."

Red tape

But Scottish Renewables has warned that this potential will be lost unless local authorities and the Scottish Government remove the red tape slowing the uptake of renewable heating, in particular wood fuel biomass systems and air source heat pumps.

Local authorities such as the City of Edinburgh Council have had a moratoria in place on the approval of wood fuel biomass heating systems over fears about particulate emissions, despite a recent Scottish Government study showing emissions at levels of around half of what had previously been believed.

And, new robust guidance is being issued for local authorities to assess the location of systems in sensitive urban areas.

Scottish Renewables added that air source hear puts were also recently excluded from Scottish Government measures to make technologies exempt from planning approval (see this New Energy Focus story), despite their inclusion in an imminent fuel poverty scheme implemented by Alex Salmond's government.

Alice Waltham from IPA Economics said: "Our research has indicated that, based on current installed cost of renewable energy technology, reaching 11% renewable heat by 2020 could generate a turnover of £2.5 billion in the renewables sector, excluding the biomass supply chain."

She added: "IPA estimates indicate that £0.9 billion of this value could be retained in Scotland, and could mean an estimated 2,000 sustainable jobs in Scotland, including indirect and induced employment. Most of these are expected to be additional jobs, with only 100 coming from redeployment from the existing plumbing and heating sector as renewable energy increasingly competes with conventional heating."

Part of the international consultancy DAR Group, IPA has offices in both London and Edinburgh.

© 2009 NewEnergyFocus