The energy industry in Scotland is thriving and continues to attract inward investment thanks to an abundance of natural resources and a supportive infrastructure. The following statistics illustrate why Scotland is such an attractive proposition for companies looking to invest in energy.
- There are an estimated 920 million tonnes of recoverable crude oil remaining in North Sea oil fields.
- Scotland is Europe's leading offshore gas producer, with most of its reserves being found offshore in the North Sea.
- The Scottish Government has set a target of 50 per cent of electricity to be generated through renewable sources of power by 2020.
- Scotland has the potential to generate 59.1 GW of power through renewable energy, with the prospect of becoming a major exporter of sustainable energy.
Find out more key facts and figures specific to the various energy sectors in Scotland.
Oil and gas in Scotland
Oil and gas play a crucial role in the Scottish energy industry, and are the country’s largest export sector.
- Scotland’s gas fields contain a maximum remaining reserve of 1330 billion cubic metres (bcm).
- The Scottish oil and gas industry supports 150,000 jobs, with more than 2,000 companies extracting reserves from the North Sea.
- As many of the world's unexplored oil fields lie under very deep water, Scotland's expertise in subsea technology will continue to grow in importance.
- Some Scottish oil fields have been discovered relatively recently and are at an early stage of their productive life.
- Of the 500 exploration rigs in the world, 75 are to be found in the North Sea.
- In 2006 oil and gas companies in Scotland exported over £4.7 billion of goods and services (Scotland's largest export sector).
- Recent and future fields are expected to remain productive at least until 2020.
Wind energy in Scotland
Scotland has massive potential as a producer of renewable energy and its natural resources, such as wind, are set to become increasingly valuable in coming years.
- Onshore wind generation is an extremely cost-effective method of producing renewable energy and supports nearly 3,000 Scottish jobs, with the potential to support at least 16,000 more in ten years.
- Scotland's potential wind generating capacity (36.5 GW) is higher than its requirements (10.5 GW), thus Scotland could be a net exporter of wind-produced electricity.
- At the end of August 2009:
- There were 70 onshore wind farms in Scotland, with a total current capacity of 1.8GW.
- A further 3GW of onshore wind energy projects had received planning permission and a further 3GW were in the pipeline.
Marine energy in Scotland
- Scotland is heavily involved in marine energy research, development and production.
- Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe's tidal energy and 10 per cent of the European wave resource.
- The country will form one of the few significant tide and wave energy markets in Europe in the coming years.
- Europe’s first full-scale testing, accreditation & development centre for wave and tidal devices is in Scotland.
- There is large potential for tidal energy (7.5 GW) and wave energy (14 GW).
Fuel cell research in Scotland
- There is great excitement about the potential use of fuel cells for energy generation across the world.
- Scotland is pioneering research into fuel cell technology – a field which is widely expected to become hugely important in coming decades.
- Government funds will provide £16.5M to develop fuel cell demonstrator projects over the next four years.
Solar energy in Scotland
- Although Scotland is not renowned for its sunshine, there is considerable potential to produce energy using Solar Thermal and Solar Photo-Voltaic technology here.
- Scotland’s Solar Photo-Voltaic installed capacity is approximately 500kW installed capacity and growing.
- Scotland has an abundance of natural resources, with 12 to 14 hours of useable daylight per day.
Bio-energy in Scotland
- Scotland has extensive potential to generate power by converting organic material to energy using either a chemical reaction or a mechanical process.
- 60 per cent of the UK’s forestry resource is situated in Scotland.
- Production of timber in Scotland is expected to double over the next 15 years as mature forests become available for harvesting.
- There are large tracts of rural agricultural land available for growing energy crops.
- From 2008, 3 per cent of all road fuels will be required to come from biofuels, a figure that will increase to 5.4 per cent by 2010.
- Scotland is currently involved in research into Algal Biofuels i.e biofuels from seaweed and algae, and the production of biobutanol from waste biomass using selected bacteria.
- Bio-energy is increasingly seen as a means of large energy users protecting themselves from the volatility of the global energy price market.
- Currently Scotland has 60 per cent of the UK’s onshore wind installed capacity.
- With a potential power output of 36.5GW, Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe's wind energy source.
- By 2020, Scotland expects to achieve the Scottish Government renewable energy target of 50%, primarily through onshore wind power.
Contact us to find out more about the energy industry in Scotland.