Utility firm reaches green milestone

Roseanna Cunningham, the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, with Peter Farrer, Scottish Water Chief Operating Officer, at the Glencorse Water Treatment Works, Penicuik.

The firm, which provides essential 24-7 services to customers across Scotland, is one of the biggest users of electricity in the country and requires about 445 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per year across 4500 sites such as water and waste water treatment works.

This is enough to power nearly 140,000 homes occupied by more than 300,000 people,

Through a combination of Scottish Water investment in renewable energy and hosting private investment on its estate, new figures confirm that the company now generates and hosts more renewable power than it consumes annually and is on course to double this by 2018.

Chris Toop, General Manager of Scottish Water’s energy programme, said: “Facilitating more renewable power than we consume makes a significant contribution to keeping the long-term cost of providing vital water and waste water services as low as possible, while supporting national economic, carbon and renewable energy targets.”

Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, said: “As we consider our current draft Climate Change Plan and consult on Scotland’s draft Energy Strategy, this impressive achievement shows that the Government’s ambition to reduce carbon greenhouse gas emissions by 66 per cent by 2032 is realistic.”