Westminster will seek to renegotiate renewable-energy targets and increase UK reliance on nuclear power instead if Scotland votes for independence, the UK energy minister said yesterday.
Michael Fallon said that the “continuing UK” – the country without Scotland – would not rely on wind and wave power supplied by a “separate country”.
The UK is legally committed by the European Union to meet 15% of its energy demand from renewable sources by 2020.
Mr Fallon, who was in Scotland to mark the start of work on a £1.3billion subsea electricity connector, said the rest of the UK would continue to move to a low-carbon economy if it ruled out use of Scottish renewable energy.
Customers in the UK could choose “cheaper” nuclear energy from France.
“The continuing UK would be a different country. As a different sovereign country we would have to negotiate a separate renewables target. The old target would disappear.
“We could not rely on renewables contribution from a separate country. We would have to renegotiate our own target with Brussels.”
He added: “English consumers would then have the choice. They wouldn’t automatically take Scottish renewable power. They could take cheaper French power through the French interconnector.”
Scottish Renewables, the trade body for the industry, declined to comment.
The minister was in Glasgow with Ignacio Galan, the chairman of ScottishPower’s parent company, Iberdrola, to launch the beginning of construction of the first subsea electricity link between Scotland and England and Wales.
He said the 260-mile link was a “perfect symbol of the single UK energy market from which Scotland benefits”.
“It enables Scottish renewables to be sold to English and Welsh consumers, but it also ensures that Scottish consumers can tap into cheap English nuclear power when the wind doesn’t blow in Scotland.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The reality is that the rest of the UK will depend on Scotland’s renewable and other energy to keep the lights on – and today’s announcement about the west-coast interconnector highlights the common interest which we have with sharing energy across our borders as outlined in Scotland’s Future.
“English and Welsh supply companies will continue to need renewable generation from Scotland after independence if they are to meet their green energy targets. Any reduction in these targets would undermine efforts to de-carbonise electricity use as part of efforts to tackle climate change.”
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