New Data Suggests Solar Could Meet Scotland’s Electricity Needs
Reports in Scottish media, quoting statistics from WWF-Scotland and English-based WeatherEnergy, suggest that houses with solar panels installed received enough electricity to meet 100% of their needs.
The data, provided by WeatherEnergy, analysts aiming at interpreting UK weather into daily renewable energy production figures, and publicized by WWF-Scotland, proves that homes fitted with solar PV panels were able to rely entirely on solar energy throughout April.
In fact, according to the monthly figures for April provided by WeatherEnergy, the average percentage of household electricity demand provided by PV is astonishing (see the full list at the bottom of this page). In the country’s capital of Edinburgh, solar energy provided 132% of electricity for those residents with rooftop solar. In Glasgow, the country’s largest city, 123% was generated by rooftop solar houses; and in the country’s third largest city, Aberdeen, it was at 129%.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, WWF-Scotland has come out in favor of increasing the number of residences with rooftop solar.
“For the tens of thousands of Scottish households that have already installed solar panels, there was enough sun to effectively meet all of their electricity or hot water needs in April, helping to reduce our reliance on polluting fossil fuels,” said WWF Scotland director Lang Banks. “With these sorts of figures, every home or business with a south-facing roof should seriously consider switching on to the full potential of solar power.
“Similarly,” he added, “there is no reason why Scotland should not be home to commercial-scale solar farms.”
Scotland is normally attributed the title of one of Europe’s leading wind energy countries. Scotland has seen wind energy generate enough electricity for household needs in October, and 107% in November of 2014, and 146% of all Scottish household needs in January. But the Scottish people are more interested in renewable energy as a whole, as can be seen by recent surveys.
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