You’ll have seen some of the previous reports showing periods when renewable sources could have powered all of Scotland and more such as:
Scotland’s energy 100% renewable by 2030?
All of Scotland could have been renewables-powered in May
If you search my blog for ‘renewables’, you’ll find umpteen other reports. Now the Scottish Government has just announced that:
‘Renewable electricity generation in Scotland has reached a new record high…new figures show that in the first quarter of this year, renewable generation was up by 13% compared to the same period last year….there was an increase in capacity, with more than half of all gross electricity consumption in Scotland continues to come from renewables.’
So, we’ve seen a fourfold increase in only the last ten years. The 100% target looks a certainty. All these new oil and gas discoveries will just have to be exported.
Talking-up Scotland 
A lot of households have been fitted out to use gas unfortunately – a lot of which has to be imported (maybe that is for the whole UK, not sure), and a useful thing it is for now. I don’t see a problem with having a gradual change over, particularly with community heating systems coming into being, to electricity.
Can I complain about radio Scotland Good Morning Scotland? Their news report, in the main news item was headlined:
BBC investigation has found there are potentially thousands of tower block homes that do not have life-saving sprinkler systems.
Their ‘news’ piece was short and uninformative along the lines of:
..it has emerged there are about 300 high rise properties are not fitted with sprinkler systems. The Scottish government has started full investigations into fire safety and fire suppression …
They interviewed someone from the NCE (new civil engineer) magazine – Not someone from the fire service – who said sprinkler systems were great.
I am not disputing that sprinkler systems are great, they seem to be, but there is no context in this carefully worded report! [300 tower blocks without sprinkler systems – pause – Grenfell tower was not fitted with sprinklers]<<– draw your own conclusions.
The BBC online news has more substance, but still ignores the lack of flammable material in all those tower blocks, how they all have fire doors, smoke detectors, regular patrols from concierges, etc etc. How can a supposed public broadcaster think it is fine to focus on something that has the status of ongoing consideration and not a direct immediate threat – it must be bad enough for those living in tower blocks without more, unnecessary, anxiety. Why not an interview from the fire service? Why not a proper update on status? Why no reassurance.
My MP wrote an update for constituents, this is local to Glasgow North, but I am sure all other SNP MPs / MSPs will be keeping folks updated:
https://www.patrickgrady.scot/106-fire-safety-multi-story-buildings
Shame on the BBC yet again producing fear and confusion with its misinformation. What they gain from this I have no idea.
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Aaaargh don’t tell me about GMS! I’m no weel.
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Oops,,, cringe,,, sorry, went into far too much detail there. I did put in a nice link from my nice MP though? You can delete the comment if you like, I won’t take offence – in fact do that, it was an immediate reaction to the Morning news instead of ignoring it. I’ll copy the comment and stick it on one of the whiny sites 🙂
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