Page - 122 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

the windiest country in the European region (25% of all of the region’swind crosses the Scottish landmass and its surrounding seas). Scotland’s wind energy potential is estimated to bemore than 150GWonshore (current peak demand in Scotland is 10.5 GW) with significant opportunities for additional onshore and offshore development. Scotland’s offshore potential is estimated to be 206GWand offshorewind power generation is predicted to be about 10GW in 2020.As result, the Scottish government has set a target of generating 100% of Scotland’s electricity from renewable energy by 2020, with most of this likely to come from wind power. Scotland is also a world leader in development ofwave and tidal power. Onaglobalbasiswindisarapidlygrowingenergytechnology, formany years the fastest growing (48). It now ranks second to solar energy, which has experienced significant cost reductions in recent years. In 2017 52 GWof wind energy were installed and cumulative installed wind capacity reached 539 GW (see Figure 8.12). Figure 8.11Whitelee Wind Farm, Scotland (Source: personal photo, author). Water,Energy, andEnvironment–APrimer122