Renewable energy belongs to the people!

The SSP support full community and public ownership of all renewable energy projects in Scotland.

We welcome the SNP’s target of 100% domestic renewable energy by 2020 but believe that if such projects are left in the hands of the energy companies, communities will be left with the crumbs from the table while the private profiteers pocket millions.

In the 1970s and 80s, the SNP famously campaigned under the slogan ‘It’s Scotland’s oil’. Yet the people of Scotland have seen little of the billions of pounds generated by North Sea oil - instead, most of the profit has gone to the coffers of multinational corporations such as BP and Shell. But there is an alternative. In Norway, oil revenues go into a common good fund, and Norway – an independent country with a population comparable to Scotland – enjoys a far better standard of living.

Of course we know that North Sea oil is a limited resource, and although the SSP would take these corporations into public ownership, much of the potential revenue has already been and gone. Renewable energy, on the other hand, offers a sustainable, long term and hugely valuable resource. Let’s not make the same mistakes again!

The Isle of Gigha, where local people exercised their rights to a community buy-out and have subsequently developed a community-owned windfarm, should be an inspiration to communities the length and breadth of Scotland – both in rural areas and in our towns and cities. A few years ago Gigha was a struggling, remote island community with only 6 children in the local school – that number has now increased to 24. The community has been able to build affordable housing and attract young families, and community-owned renewable energy has been at the heart of this.

Proposals for renewable energy projects are springing up across Scotland. In some cases, such as the proposed wind farm off the coast of Tiree, they are opposed by local communities, while in others – such as the tidal power development off Islay, supported by the Islay Energy Trust, they have strong local support. The SSP believes that such developments should be in the hands of the local community, who are best placed to understand the needs of their community and the appropriate scale of a project. And critically, we argue that the people of Scotland should own and control these developments. In Ardrishaig, a 17-strong wind turbine development is being proposed, where the community will own one turbine and private energy companies the other 16. Since when did private companies own the wind, the sea and the sun? The mainstream parties argue that private sector investment is required to build the turbines. Yet assuming that the wind continues to blow, the tide ebbs and flows and the sun rises in the morning, this should be a guaranteed return – why should communities not benefit from state support to establish projects?

Scotland stands on the brink of a green energy revolution which has the potential to make us a world leader in carbon reduction, wipe out fuel poverty and create sustainable, skilled jobs in some of our poorest communities. Renewable energy is OUR energy, not the private energy corporations!