Scotland Becomes Closer to Being a 'Fossil-Free' Country

Scotland had set a goal for renewable energy consumption. Some thought it was very ambitious to have such goal reports have shown that 57.7 percent of the country's electricity came from renewable energy sources last year. Fifty percent ahead of the target set by ministers. Well, being ambitious is certainly paying off for them.

According to the numbers released by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, Scotland is now believed to be more than halfway to realizing its most challenging goal to produce the entire annual electricity needs from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. Just last November, it gave a go to the construction of the world's largest floating wind farm. The finding certainly suits the renewable trend directed by the current Scottish government, iflscience.com reported.

Jenny Hogan, director of policy for Scottish Renewables said in an interview that this is another important step in creating a fossil-free country and also to show that renewables is now the main part of the country's power sector. "There is still a huge amount of potential for future growth, if the industry is given the right backing by government," she added.

It's great news to know that Scotland has continued to grow despite the difficulty they have faced. The issue of support for the industry came into question after the British government signaled to cut down on renewable energy subsidies. After that many doubted if Scotland would still be able to reach its goal of going fully renewable by 2020, and said that they should push the goal back to another decade.

Science Alert reported Lang Banks told the Herald that all political parties need to continue to prioritize renewables before May's election and really commit in making sure that Scotland secures the benefits of becoming the EU's first fully renewable electricity nation by 2030.

This is every Scottish environmentalist's vision that they are eager to push through. Considering the announcement of the new figures as an opportunity to attract as much opposition as possible with British PM David Cameron's agenda.