Tag: sustainability

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Scotland producing ‘only’ FIVE times as much gas as it consumes – how could we survive on our own?

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From the Guardian today: The penny is dropping in government. Britain, even in rapid energy transition mode, will still need a lot of gas in the years ahead – and needs to know how the gas will arrive. It could hardly be otherwise when there are 24m households with a gas connection, largely for heating, and the pace of heat pumps adoption is miserable. Last year gas comprised about a third of the UK’s overall energy needs. Though annual consumption is in decline, the days of peak use during a bleak midwinter can still be as high as ever. The … Continue reading Scotland producing ‘only’ FIVE times as much gas as it consumes – how could we survive on our own?

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Glasgow’s ‘super-hospital directly downwind of another massive waste treatment plant approved by Scottish Labour in 2012

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The new South Clyde Energy Centre due west of the QEUH to get the very most of the pollution into the wards. No comparable hospital in the World faces such threat. With this massive incinerator, approved by the Labour-run council in 2012, the QEUH will be exposed to even greater threat than it already faces. By Joe Murray The South Clyde Energy Centre (SCWC) an Energy from Waste (EfW) Incinerator being built at North Cardonald in Glasgow is sited around 500 metres and directly upwind of the Queen Elizabeth University and Sick Children’s Hospitals (or the Southern General as locals … Continue reading Glasgow’s ‘super-hospital directly downwind of another massive waste treatment plant approved by Scottish Labour in 2012

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Sludge leaks, spills, and fails to be contained so build your super-hospital further away

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Once more, deep thanks to our friend who shared this ‘sludge’ with us. From: Olden, R. (2016) Sludge. Cultural Geographies, 23(4), pp. 715719. (doi:10.1177/1474474016630966) We are standing over the inlet of Shieldhall Wastewater Treatment Works where the rush of stuff banished to an underworld of sewers and culverts spews from a protruding pipe to meet the light of day once again: the sewage and wastewater of half a million people….Here at Shieldhall, Scotland’s largest wastewater treatment works, the task is to separate water from waste. Wastewater runs a course which sees it filtered, settled, dredged and then metabolised by nitrifying … Continue reading Sludge leaks, spills, and fails to be contained so build your super-hospital further away

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New transmission infrastructure in Scotland is primarily required to transmit surplus electricity across the border into England and the wider Great Britain system

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to where it is consumed, mainly Central Scotland and England. BBC Scotland’s insert into BBC Breakfast makes the above explicit claim that new pylons and infrastructure are needed to ‘shift’ energy from the north to central Scotland. Notably the full BBC Scotland report online does not make the above claim. Another Reporting Scotland special? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rn42jp7d6o Is the claim, additional to their full online report, true? No. Why? In Scotland: Electricity consumption has declined substantially over the past two decades. Total consumption in Scotland was 21.7 TWh in 2024 — down 26.6% from the 2005–2007 baseline average of 29.3 TWh. Domestic … Continue reading New transmission infrastructure in Scotland is primarily required to transmit surplus electricity across the border into England and the wider Great Britain system

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The Edinburgh Tourist Levy to raise £50m a year, to build 472 new houses for locals and more city centre police officers

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Reader Arty Hetty has been hearing rumours from elements stirring against the Tourist Levy: ‘Far as I know Edinburgh council are introducing a tourist tax, with the proceeds apparently going to be used to build houses for workers from outwith Scotland, not for services for the residents that are impacted by tourism…needs more investigation but that’s what I saw reported recently.’  stewartb (with added comment below from Legerwood) responding to these rumours: How does it stack up against what the Council is stating? There is an abundance of information on the Levy and what has already been agreed in terms of its … Continue reading The Edinburgh Tourist Levy to raise £50m a year, to build 472 new houses for locals and more city centre police officers

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UK Government’s own levelised ‘full lifetime’ cost analysis – new nuclear is nearly three times more expensive than onshore wind and more than double offshore wind

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From Nuclear and offshore wind energy comparison information: EIR release – Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, published today: Information requested All internal briefings, analysis and minutes/notes from meetings, comparing nuclear energy and offshore wind energy, from the last three months. Response Some of the information you requested is available from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Publication. The publication provides estimates of the size of the UK’s low carbon and renewable energy economy, including turnover and employment. Data is available for nuclear, and offshore energy. The latest publication … Continue reading UK Government’s own levelised ‘full lifetime’ cost analysis – new nuclear is nearly three times more expensive than onshore wind and more than double offshore wind

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All three of the first major hydropower projects in ‘Great Britain’ in 40 years due to be built in northern Scotland to double storage for Southern England

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From the Guardian today: Great Britain’s first new major hydropower projects in more than 40 years are expected to move ahead after the energy regulator gave a provisional green light to three proposals as part of a plan to reduce the country’s reliance on energy imports. All three of the new pumped storage hydroelectric power station projects are due to be built in northern Scotland, where the region’s lochs will act as natural reservoirs to serve the hydropower stations. The Loch Kemp project, developed by Statera Energy, plans to draw water from Loch Ness, and SSE’s Coire Glas project expects to draw from Loch Lochy … Continue reading All three of the first major hydropower projects in ‘Great Britain’ in 40 years due to be built in northern Scotland to double storage for Southern England

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Near-Shore Underwater Data Centres with Waste Heat Recovery – A Distinctly Scottish Opportunity – short and long read

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By Jim Mennie: Short version Scotland’s oil and gas industry still has a future, but that future is heavily constrained. Successive Westminster governments of all parties — Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat — have retained control over energy policy because it remains a reserved matter. As a result, Scotland has had little meaningful say over the pace of development, licensing decisions, or the long-term direction of the sector. This lack of control has left the industry and the communities that depend on it in a state of uncertainty for years.Rather than continuing to battle for greater influence within a system … Continue reading Near-Shore Underwater Data Centres with Waste Heat Recovery – A Distinctly Scottish Opportunity – short and long read

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UK Energy Minister, Michael Shanks, should be warned about Rural Scots trapped in a ‘quiet crisis’

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The Scotsman today has a report on the Poverty Alliance apparently warning the SNP on the costs of energy in rural parts, unconnected to the gas grid and where home heating oil has to be bought in bulk in the absence of any price protection. The absence of price protection for heating oil, the regulatory framework for energy markets, and the overall approach to supporting off-grid households are reserved matters.1 Scotland has a higher proportion of homes off the mains gas grid than most of the UK. These households (roughly 142,000 using oil) rely on heating oil (kerosene), LPG, or … Continue reading UK Energy Minister, Michael Shanks, should be warned about Rural Scots trapped in a ‘quiet crisis’

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Why Swinney is correct to reject call for AI data centre pause in Scotland

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I knows this one is divisive. More than a few Talking-up Scotland readers disagree with us on it but here is the case, again, that Scotland is one of the few places with the resources – water and energy – to make a lot of money out of data centres, once independent of course. From the Sunday Mail 28 December 2025, the above back-to-front headline and: Massive new data centres planned in Scotland to power the AI revolution would use up to three quarters of the country’s total electricity demand [sic], a new study has claimed. Research firm Foxglove, which campaigns for fair tech, … Continue reading Why Swinney is correct to reject call for AI data centre pause in Scotland