• Record 38.4 TWh renewable electricity in 2024, up 13.2% on 2023. Previous record 35.5 TWh in 2022 smashed. • Wind 30.1 TWh, hydro 5.2 TWh, solar 0.6 TWh, other 2.6 TWh. • Capacity 17.4 GW at end 2024, up 12.9% from 15.4 GW in 2023. • 904 projects in planning pipeline - 65.4 GW total. • Total electricity all sources 51.8 TWh in 2024, 73.1% renewable, 91.5% low carbon. • In 2023/24 Scotland generated equivalent of 113% of its electricity consumption from renewables. More than we use.

Scotland exported 21.0 TWh and imported 1.3 TWh in 2024. Net export 19.7 TWh to England. • Value £1.5 billion at wholesale prices. • In 2023 we exported 33.8% of generation. • Scotland has 8% of UK population but provides about 30% of all UK renewable electricity. 

PLUS OIL AND GAS

• UK oil and gas added £25bn to UK economy in 2023, Scotland £14bn - 56% of total. • 66,000 jobs in Scotland of 115,000 UK oil and gas jobs. • Still major resource even as declining.

Whitelee - biggest onshore wind farm in UK, 539 MW near Glasgow - owned by ScottishPower Renewables, which is owned by Iberdrola, Spain.

Rest: ScottishPower Iberdrola Spain, SSE, EDF France, Vattenfall Sweden. Profit goes abroad.

74 applications, 17 projects offered seabed rights Jan 2022, just under 25 GW, area 7,000 km2. Just under £700m option fees paid to Scottish Government.

BP, Shell, TotalEnergies France, Iberdrola Spain, Vattenfall Sweden, Orsted Denmark, SSE, Marubeni Japan.

Almost all foreign multinationals or London-based. Biggest winner ScottishPower 7 GW with Shell for 5 GW floating.

Crown Estate Scotland capped fees at £100k per km2, so fees per GW 94% lower than English auction. Multi-billion investment promised but ownership foreign.

Full lease only after Scottish Government planning consent, but ultimate ownership still Crown in right of Crown, not Scottish people.

Scotland Act 1998 Schedule 5 says oil and gas industry reserved.

Onshore licensing devolved 2016, but offshore licensing - all in territorial sea and continental shelf - is NSTA in London with Treasury consent.

Scottish Government cannot issue new offshore oil licences. London does.

Tax goes to UK Treasury - peaked £9.9bn in 2022-23, forecast down to £2.3bn by 2029. Historically £156bn over 30 years. Goes to London, not Holyrood.

Energy is reserved matter. Ofgem London, National Grid, DESNZ London set rules. Holyrood cannot change market price, standing charges, transmission charges.

Seabed rent £37.6m normal year plus £700m ScotWind one-off to Scottish Government, but UK deducted same from block grant at transfer 2017, so not pure extra.

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Wind profits to foreign owners.

Oil tax to Treasury London.

Export value £1.5bn wholesale but no bill saving for Scots.

So we host resource, others own companies and set licences.

THE GAS SCAM - MARGINAL PRICING

Wind costs £40-50 to make 1 MWh. Gas costs £80-120.

UK market uses pay-as-clear marginal pricing. Every half hour auction, cheapest bought first - wind first, nuclear second, gas last to meet demand. Price EVERYONE gets is price of last most expensive plant - almost always gas.

Ofgem says gas sets price more than 90% of time. Guardian analysis says 98% of time. EU average 58%. UK highest in Europe.

Result: Scotland makes cheap wind, you pay gas price you never used.

2024 average 32 pence per kWh, 55% above pre-crisis, even though Scotland made 113% of own electricity from renewables.

You pay for gas to keep lights on in southeast England.

What would fix it? 

Zonal pricing - 

Price reflects where you live. 

Where generation plentiful like Scotland, price cheaper. 

Where importing like London, price higher.

What did UK Government do?

So official policy keeps Scotland subsidising south. In REMA Summer Update.

TNUoS charges. Generators far from demand pay more to put power on grid.

Example: 22 MW wind farm in Argyll costs £500,000 MORE to connect than same farm in Essex, rising by £150,000 under current trajectory.

NESO projected 2033/34: intermittent generation in northern Scotland will pay over £70 per kW, southern England could get negative charges - paid to connect.

That extra cost added to bills.

Scotland 34% fuel poor vs England 11%.

Extreme fuel poverty 2022-2024:

Orkney 34%

Shetland 29%

Aberdeenshire 27%

Western Isles 27%

Dumfries & Galloway 24%

Seven councils far above average. Rural, island, off gas grid, rely on expensive electric heating.

Scottish Government model Oct-Dec 2025: 830,000 households fuel poor - 33% of all households.

We make power. We are cold.

Renewables make bills high - LIE. Renewables cheapest. Gas sets price 98% time.

UK-wide market helps Scotland - HALF LIE. Scotland provides cheap and gets charged expensive.

Holyrood can fix it - LIE. All reserved to Westminster.

Norway: State share in oil and wind, keeps tax, owns grid, bills based on cost of hydro - cheap.

Scotland: Hosts resource, foreign owns turbines, London sets price based on gas, London takes oil tax, Scotland pays highest bills.

If Scotland controlled energy like Norway - own seabed, own licences, own market - bills based on wind cost £40-50 not gas £80-120.

Devo-max only works if it fixes this. More powers but same market = same bills.

For devo-max to mean anything, Scotland must get:

• Full control of seabed, not just managing Crown land • Share or control of oil licences and tax • Control of Ofgem rules, TNUoS charges, and standing charges so we stop paying more to be connected • End of gas price scam - price based on cost of wind we make, not gas in England • A public stake in new wind farms so profit stays here 

Without that, devo-max is just more paperwork and same high bills.

Independence means we become Norway.

Norway owns its oil, owns its wind, keeps tax, owns grid, sets price on what it costs to make - hydro cheap, bills cheap.

If Scotland owned seabed, licences, grid and market, bills based on £40 wind not £100 gas. £1.5bn export becomes income for us. £700m ScotWind becomes start of fund, not one-off with block grant cut behind it. Penalty for being far from London ends because we are the market.

Full control of all levers - that only comes with independence.

Ask yourself one question:

How can country that makes more clean power than it needs, exports a third, powers 30% of UK, be cold and fuel poor with highest bills?

Answer: Because we host resource but London controls price, grid, licences and market.

Whoever runs Scotland next 50 years must fix this, independence or devo-max:

Own more of what we make.

Set price on what it costs here.

Stop paying gas price for wind power.

Stop paying extra to export our own power south.

This is not left or right. This is not Yes or No. This is about whether Scotland in next 50 years is energy rich and cash rich, or energy rich and fuel poor.

Wind, hydro, seabed, oil, gas, storage - that is Scotland's future income for 50 years. Who controls it decides if we are rich or cold.

That is why energy matters for Scotland's future.