- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Scottish Water has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Scottish Water from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water, and the Scottish Government does not hold the information, I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:
Currently, Scottish Water hosts 0.17MW of hydro (estimated @ 1.3GWh/annum) and 279MW of wind (estimated @ 831GWh/annum).
The income received from hosting 3rd party renewables was £5.9m in 2023-24 and £3.6m in 2024-25 (note that this income tracks the wholesale cost of electricity).
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance or direction it has offered to its agencies and departments in relation to prioritising community-owned enterprises in arrangements for the generation of electricity on land in their ownership or management.
Answer
Land ownership, management and use should deliver a wide range of social, environmental, economic and cultural benefits to the people of Scotland. Community energy has a key role to play in supporting this and we have recently announced £3.5 million in 2025-26 for a new ‘Community Energy Generation Growth Fund’ through our Community and Renewable Energy Scheme. This will support community groups to develop their own renewable energy projects and enable communities to benefit from the energy transition.
Through our Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement and corresponding protocols, we set our vision for the ownership, use and management of land, including recognising that more local communities should have the opportunity to own, lease or use buildings and land which can contribute to their community's wellbeing and future development.
The Energy Saving Trust (EST), on behalf of the Scottish Government, publishes the annual Community and Locally Owned Energy in Scotland (COLO) Report. The latest report states that, as of December 2023, there are 92 MW of operational capacity across 12,110 installations in the Public Sector and Charity category, across a range of technologies.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements it has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its direct ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for it from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages the majority of land owned by Scottish Ministers, in the form of Scotland's national forests and land. Currently FLS has 76 land agreements in place with private companies covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. There are 25 windfarms and 51 hydro schemes. There are no solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.
The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 1257.95 MW, this comprises 1213.7 MW wind and 44.245 MW hydro.
The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £21,800,000 wind and £2,049,842 hydro.
The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Crown Estate Scotland has in place with community-owned providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Crown Estate Scotland from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Crown Estate Scotland has no current leases with community-owned providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements it has in place with community-owned providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its direct ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for it from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages the majority of land owned by Scottish Ministers, in the form of Scotland's national forests and land. Currently FLS has 10 land agreements in place with 100% community owned or part community owned organisations covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. These are all hydro schemes. There are no windfarms or solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.
The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 5.501 MW.
The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £250,158.
The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Crown Estate Scotland has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Crown Estate Scotland from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Crown Estate Scotland has the following arrangements in place with private sector providers for wind and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management:
- One commercial lease agreement with a tenant farmer, which involved the installation of a 50KW solar PV scheme, installed on a 50/50 basis under a FIT scheme a number of years ago. This project resulted in the payment of £9,300 to Crown Estate Scotland in 2023-24 and has 16 years to run.
- Three onshore wind electricity generation projects in the planning stages that are yet to be consented as follows:
- Wind farm in planning phase in Moffat with a view to 7 turbines on two tenanted farms with potential capacity of 50.4MW.
- Access rights over CES ground and tenanted farms to facilitate potential 16 turbines (sited elsewhere) in Moray with potential capacity of 105.6MW. The scheme is still in planning phase.
- Access rights over CES ground and tenanted farms to facilitate 10 turbines (sited elsewhere) with potential wind farm capacity of 72MW in Moray. The scheme is still in planning stages.
There are currently no operational onshore wind farms with a lease from Crown Estate Scotland. Also, Crown Estate Scotland does not manage any onshore leases for hydropower projects.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements the national forest estate has in place with community-owned organisations for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for the national forest estate from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Scotland’s national forests and land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland has 10 land agreements in place with 100% community owned or part community owned organisations covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. These are all hydro schemes. There are no windfarms or solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.
The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 5.501 MW.
The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £250,158.
The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 07 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements the national forest estate has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for the national forest estate from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Answer
Scotland's national forests and land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland has 76 land agreements in place with private companies covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. There are 25 windfarms and 51 hydro schemes. There are no solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.
The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 1257.95 MW, this comprises 1213.7 MW wind and 44.245 MW hydro.
The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £21,800,000 wind and £2,049,842 hydro.
The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, published in December 2024; what its position is on what the plan means for Scotland’s offshore wind industry, and how much of the UK Government’s plan for 43-50 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 will be in Scotland.
Answer
Scotland’s strong pipeline of renewables projects and growing supply chain will be vital to achieving a secure, affordable and clean power system, and we welcome the measures in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan to make progress towards this.
In particular, we welcome the signal the Action Plan provides on support for renewable energy – such as actions to speed up grid connections for key projects, and proposed improvements to Contracts for Difference support for renewables developments.
We expect significant growth of Scotland’s offshore wind capacity to play a key role in achieving clean power by 2030. In 2020, the Scottish Government set an ambition for 8-11 GW offshore wind by 2030, which is being reviewed in light of the significant ambition demonstrated by the private sector in the ScotWind and INTOG leasing rounds, with an updated Offshore Wind Policy Statement due to be published in 2025-2026. We continue to work with the UK government, National Energy System Operator, and Ofgem to ensure Scottish offshore wind projects are developed at pace and support our plans for a just transition.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it will speed up the processing of Home Energy Scotland grants for heat pumps.
Answer
Since January 2024, Energy Saving Trust (EST) as the scheme administrators have processed 97% of applications and 98% of payments across grant and loan schemes within the required 10 working days from receipt of complete documentation.
Outwith this timeframe is the length of time taken to access bespoke advice from Home Energy Scotland or for applicants to provide all required documentation for an application or claim submission. This stage is where the majority of delays occur, and officials have worked with EST to reduce the occurrence of these, where any elements are within EST’s control. This includes implementing a new application and claim system, which delivers significant improvements to the process, including the submission of documents and claims directly to the portal.
In line with feedback from stakeholders, including applicants and installers, the Scottish Government recognises the need for continuous improvement in funding administration, and is considering future developments, whilst balancing the need for consumer protection and counter fraud measures.
