A NEW green-energy centre in Aberdeen could help Scotland along the path to becoming a nation powered entirely from renewables, conservation group WWF Scotland said yesterday.
It added that the facility was a good example of public investment “at the right time in the right sector”.
WWF Scotland’s comments came after First Minister Alex Salmond officially opened the Scottish European Green Energy Centre in the Granite City.
Mr Salmond announced the award of a European regional development grant worth up to £1.6million for the project over five years.
There is also £1million of funding from Holyrood over three years.
The facility, headed up by executive chairman Duncan Botting, has been set up at Aberdeen University to help co-ordinate the development and deployment of technologies such as carbon capture and offshore wind and tidal power
WWF Scotland director Richard Dixon, said: “To enable Scotland to reduce its climate emissions by 42% by 2020 (a Scottish Government target) we will need to transform how we generate electricity, heat our homes and power our cars.
“Scotland has a massive potential for renewable energy and if any country should be 100% renewable then it should be this one.”
Scottish Labour energy spokesman Lewis Macdonald also welcomed the project but said that it would take much more to secure a leading place for Scotland in green-energy development across Europe.
Mr Macdonald said: “This new initiative will see investments of around £300,000 a year of EU funding and around £300,000 a year of government funding over the next three to five years.
“These are very modest sums in the context of the multibillion-pound energy industries but every small step forward is useful.”
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