Question reference: S5W-01118
- Date lodged: 29 June 2016
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Current status: Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 12 August 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many homes in the Highlands and Islands are powered by renewable energy.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. However, the following information may be useful. The reply refers to electricity and heat, each of which can be generated from renewable sources.
It is estimated that in 2015, Scotland generated enough renewable electricity to power the equivalent of around 4.6 million households, which is close to double the number of households in Scotland. Provisionally, 56.9% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption came from renewables in 2015.
Figures published by the Energy Saving Trust in October 2015, on behalf of the Scottish Government, estimate over 1 gigawatt of renewable heat capacity in operation in Scotland in 2014. This accounts for an estimated 3.8% of the total non-electrical heat demand.
The Scottish Government does not hold a complete dataset of the number of homes heated from renewable sources. The latest data on the number of domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) accreditations shows that the Highland local authority area has the largest proportion of accredited domestic RHI installation in Scotland totalling 1,751 installations. This equates to 17% of all Scottish installations as at end of June 2016.
It should be noted that renewable-generated energy will be used both domestically and non-domestically.