Virtue alone does not keep the lights on
Whatever message is drawn, the current explosion of interest in energy policy should ensure that realism impinges upon the rhetoric which will accompany COP26. Virtue alone does not keep the lights on.
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson: Serious decisions await on future of Scottish energy sector
With COP26 in Glasgow two months away, one might think Scottish political eyes would be turning towards the issues it will discuss, even if that means parking some other preoccupations for the time being. Not so.
Without further delay, we need storage capacity to back up renewables growth
Twenty years ago, I pointed out that we were heading towards 80% of our electricity being generated from gas within two decades and 80% of that gas coming from Russia. It was true at the time.
Anti-North Sea policy wrong and irrational
Reading political party manifestos is, it must be said, a duty rather than a pleasure. So much verbiage, so little prospect of the vast majority of it ever being fulfilled.
International trade policy threat to Scottish oil and gas companies
In his latest column, former UK Energy Minister Brian Wilson questions the Scottish Government's withdrawal of support for oil service exporters.
Hydrogen ambition welcome, but let’s not claim world leadership in advance
Hydrogen is the new Holy Grail. The UK Government’s Energy White Paper gives it 175 references, three times the number for offshore wind and 10 times more than new nuclear.
Calls for Holyrood to ‘come clean’ over mothballed BiFab yard
A former UK energy minister has called on the Scottish Government to “come clean” about the terms of a lease agreement for a mothballed BiFab yard on the Isle of Lewis.
New SBUK Advisory Council launched
A new “taskforce” of pro-Union business leaders, politicians and public servants aims to make the case for Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Reality check as Scotland’s offshore wind round generates fresh hopes
Crown Estate Scotland’s (CES's) announcement of an offshore wind leasing round has caused great excitement around the Scottish coast, reflected in comments from communities standing to benefit.
Trade union accuses Scottish Government of ‘surrendering’ fight for offshore wind jobs
A Scottish trade union boss has accused Holyrood of “surrendering” in its fight to win local renewables jobs from big North Sea offshore wind projects.
Wartime lessons for Scotland’s energy sector
It has long intrigued me that, throughout the Second World War, the ground was being laid for the work of the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board. Even in the darkest days of battle, people and politics were looking to a better future.
‘Urgent explanation’ needed on funding for low-carbon energy projects post-Brexit
I have just read about an “unintended consequence” of Brexit which involves sausages. Unless a derogation is achieved, Britain’s sausage makers will be unable to sell to the EU and Northern Ireland without a “special export health certificate”.
Privatisation: 30 years of changes
Thirty years ago, legislation to privatise Scotland’s electricity industry was completing its passage through parliament. It created outcomes which were never intended and are ripe for review.
Blackout raises questions about resilience of the country’s power system
The UK’s biggest power cut in more than a decade has set alarm bells ringing – and the peal is being heard far beyond the immediate causes of the episode.
Stunts aren’t the solution for climate emergency
It did not take long for declarations of a climate emergency to prompt the kind of episode they are assumed in some quarters to legitimise.
It won’t be easy to satisfy Greta Thunberg on climate change
Emergencies are not to be taken lightly so I am waiting with interest to find what the UK Parliament and Scottish Government announcements of a climate change emergency add up to.
Bringing isles’ energy assets to the market
The 20-year campaign to utilise the renewable energy assets of Shetland and the Western Isles to benefit the entire UK may be approaching end-game with outcomes still wide open.
Lamprell deal ‘failure of policy’, claims former UK energy minister
Former UK energy minister Brian Wilson has criticised the decision to hand the multi-million Moray East Offshore Windfarm deal to Lamprell, describing it as representing “a major failure of policy”.
How oil led Venezuela to chaos
It is a well-proven maxim that discovering oil can be more of a curse than a blessing and nowhere on the face of the Earth offers better testimony to that than Venezuela, now in the throes of political upheaval.
Coal-hungry Germany not as green as it might seem
A recent return to Leipzig reminded me why “going green” in Germany has been a lot more difficult than the rhetoric would sometimes suggest.
Opinion: Don’t forget our Atlantic frontier
Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Clair field’s discovery and, all going well, it should see the first oil being transported from its second offspring, Clair Ridge.
Opinion: Smoke, mirrors and hot air
At time of writing, 5% of the UK’s electricity consumption is coming from wind. Another few per cent is powered by other renewables, mainly long-established hydro; 39% from gas, 21 from nuclear and 22 from coal.