Scotland planning more offshore wind power than needed for all its homes

Aaron Colter wrote 23 March 2011: 5 GW Of Offshore Scottish Wind Power By 2020?

The Scottish Government has released a plan for offshore wind that highlights six areas for potential development. The original plan had selected ten regions for offshore renewable energy, however, four were ultimately abandoned due to predicted negative environmental and economic impact.

The six sites still in the running have an estimated energy potential of nearly five gigawatts by 2020, or enough to power 3 million homes. Richard Lochhead, Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary, said that Scotland’s commitment to offshore wind production could generate over $11 billion for the country’s economy and support up to 28,000 jobs over the next ten years.

For comparison, Scotland has about 370,000 households. According to the General Record Office for Scotland, Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2009:

In mid-2009, there were 2.34 million households in Scotland

That's right, they're talking eight 1.28 times as much power as all of Scotland's homes could use. I would guess this means they plan to export some of that power, perhaps to England.

It seems renewable energy planning has spread beyond the Highlands to the rest of Scotland.

-jsq

Update 6:45 PM 3 Apr 2011: Fixed total household number; thanks to Malcom Smith for catching this typo.

Comments

[Malcolm Smith]

> For comparison, Scotland has about 370,000 households.

Not only can you not read, you also obviously have not even the vaguest idea of what the population of Scotland is.

[Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange]

Thanks for the catch; it's always refreshing when someone actually looks at the numbers. Fixed now.
There's still some ambiguity about what "homes" means: is it the same as General Record Office's "households"? Probably not exactly.
Regarding population, scotland.org says 5,168,500 but doesn't seem to say for when or from what source. GRO says 5,194,000 for mid-year 2009.
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/population/estimates/mid-year/time-series.html
For comparison, U.S. Census mid-year 2009 estimate for Georgia is 9,829,211. Yet Scotland is far more comprehensive and serious about planning for renewable energy than Georgia.
-jsq