Renewable Energy
The fast-growing wind, wave, tidal and biomass industries in Scotland offer many exciting energy industry job opportunities to help achieve ambitious production targets.
By 2020, the Scottish Government aims for 50 percent of Scotland's energy to come from renewable energy sources. Considerable investment has been committed to achieve this target, with cutting-edge research being carried out by many Scottish businesses and universities.
Scotland’s renewable industry incorporates:
Scotland's strengths in the renewable energy industry
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The world's biggest wave power farm is in development to be built off the coast of Orkney — the £10m scheme is also the first commercial wave farm in the UK
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Over £13m in grants have been awarded for marine energy projects in Scottish waters
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A multi-million pound plant built by The Oran Group producing clean biomass energy from animal by-products
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Glendoe Hydro Scheme, Scotland’s newest hydro electric station, generated 12.7GWh of electricity in January 2009 — enough to supply the annual needs of over 3,500 homes
Working in renewable energy in Scotland
With the support of the Scottish Government, the links between universities and private companies, and the ideal environmental conditions available in Scotland, the renewable energy sector in this country will continue to grow.
Scotland has a growing number of companies in the renewable energy industry, from well-established operations to university spin-outs. These include:
- Siemens
- Natural Power
- Lunar Energy
- AWS Ocean Energy
- Scottish Power
- Windhoist
- Wavegen
- Peak Scientific
- Pelamis Wave Power
Find more renewable energy employers in Scotland
Find renewable energy jobs in Scotland
Education and research in onshore and offshore wind and marine energy
Scotland has a wealth of academic and research institutes working in the renewable energy area. Many are multi-discipline across the industry and others are specific to either wind or marine.
Some of the more notable establishments are listed below
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The Institute for Energy Systems — University of Edinburgh
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The Centre for Economic Renewable Power Delivery — University of Strathclyde
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UK Wind Energy Research — Doctoral Training Centre Energy Futures Centre
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The University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute
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Energy Technology Partnership
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SEGEC — Scottish European Green Energy Centre
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Supergen
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Marine Renewable Energy Development in Scotland — Heriot Watt University
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International Centre for Island Technology — Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Petroleum Engineering
More on Scotland's energy industry academic departments and research institutes