6 Policies on Renewable Energy

Scotland is an energy-rich nation – both in traditional fossil fuels and also in renewables.

Renewables, however, are very heavily subsidised by UK taxpayers. Wind power, for example, relies on massive public subsidies which are added to our ever-increasing energy bills.

While our electricity bills rise, the "dividends" for shareholders in the private companies which own our energy, has also been rising.

Selling shares in the national oil, electricity and gas companies (back in the 1980s and 1990s) was intended to develop a "shareholder society" where we could all theoretically make money playing the stock market. While a lot of individuals and small investors did buy shares at the time, today many of these have since been sold.

They have simply been bought by very rich investment funds and companies who have consolidated ownership over the industry!

Like all of these things – without government intervention – ownership of assets tends to pass inevitably to those with the most money.

So really, most shares in energy companies today are held by investment funds such as pension funds, extremely wealthy "City" companies, and foreign companies! They are the ones who enjoy the profits from the industry.

For example, despite the name, "Scottish Power" is owned by the privately-owned Spanish energy giant Iberdrola.

The up-shot of the "privatisation" of the energy industry – and its ownership out of British government hands, and even, in some cases, out of the hands of businesspeople in this country – has meant the removal of the revenue streams associated with the industry from the UK Treasury.

That is another reason why our government (whether at Holyrood or Westminster) is constantly short of money and has to go cap-in-hand to "borrow" from the bond markets.

That is, the money which used to flow into the Treasury from the energy industry is now flowing into private hands and often out of the country altogether!

So what to do?

Ideally, we should be able to capture the revenue streams for the benefit of the nation.

In the absence of re-nationalising the entire sector, and to the extent that windfarms are erected, there should, at least, be clear local benefit in the form of reduced bills for the local people. Presently, local communities are over-whelmed by the level of applications being made by often international corporations, in order to erect windfarms for the profit of such foreign companies

RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICIES

1- MORATORIUM ON LARGE-SCALE WIND-FARM DEVELOPMENT

We call for a moratorium on all new large-scale onshore and offshore wind developments.

We demand a halt to further construction until there is a fair deal for local communities, with meaningful local benefits – for example, cheaper energy bills in that region.

Where turbines are erected at sea, this must come with compensation – via cheaper energy bills – to the communities which lose their fishing grounds.

Local campaigners should have access to funding to enable them to hire expert representatives to fight their cases in the face of over-whelming, lengthy and technical applications presented by wealthy international corporations.

2- LOWER PRICES FOR COMMUNITIES HOSTING WINDFARMS

A "just transition" surely means "justice" for the local communities impacted by these developments – yet some of them are areas with the highest standing charges in Scotland. In this regard, we support:

3- COMMUNITY-OWNED ENERGY

We endorse the concept of "community-owned energy" whereby local communities impacted by renewable infrastructure are enabled to share in the income generated by these renewable energy developments.

This may be in the form of:

a) Complete ownership of the development where that is possible. This is most likely for small-scale developments. See for example, the 4 wind-turbines erected and owned by the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust (through its subsidiary, Gigha Renewable Energy Limited) which has generated local revenue of hundreds of thousands of pounds, via selling the energy to the grid.

b) A Community Benefit Fund. There could be a requirement for developers to offer 20% shared ownership on all commercial windfarm projects.

c) In addition to the above, we also endorse the concept of a "Scottish Community Wealth Fund" which would require compulsory contribution to a national fund from all energy developers. It would mean that a portion of Scotland's energy wealth would be reinvested into Scotland.

4- DEVELOP A "RENEWABLES" MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

Scotland should be able to manufacture and maintain the parts for wind turbines. If we are going to have renewables, there should at least be Scottish jobs attached to them!

5- ENCOURAGE BUSINESSES TO CREATE THEIR OWN ON-SITE ENERGY SUPPLY

In line with our preference for smaller-scale renewable usage we aim to encourage businesses to supply their own energy needs from on-site renewables where appropriate, such as solar. This can also help protect them, to an extent, from sudden changes in the price of oil and gas.

6- DEVELOP MAGNET RECYCLING CAPACITY

Rare earth minerals are a group of 17 metallic elements that are crucial for high-tech industries, including defence, electronics, and renewable energy. Chinese companies control more than 90 per cent of the world's total refined production.

China has limited the export of 12 of these 17 "rare earths".

Recycling is crucial for establishing a sustainable supply chain for rare earth metals. At present, less than 1% of rare earth magnets are recycled, despite being essential in green technologies.

We advocate that Scotland develops a "Magnet Recycling" capacity, in order to collect, separate and reprocess such used magnetic materials, especially from electronics, motors, and wind turbines. This is part of our "Energy Independence" principle, which will help lower costs, reduce reliance upon problematic supply chains, and help prevent landfill contamination.

The EU is already aiming to meet a quarter of its demand for rare earths via recycling by 2030.