Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes that Glasgow City Council has committed to very strong targets to tackle climate change. The Scottish Government is working with the city on a range of partnerships. For example, Glasgow hosting this year’s crucial United Nations COP26 summit, developing area based schemes to improve domestic energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty, in particular a pilot Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy, and on reducing the council fleet’s emissions as part of their ambition to be the first Net Zero City in the UK. A Scottish Government official has also accepted an invitation to join the Sustainable Glasgow Partnership Board.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that, from 2024, new build homes must use renewable or low carbon heat. We are working with the construction sector to support good practice to inform the development of regulations to achieve this, and will consult upon our approach later this year. During the development of these regulations, we will consider how we can support developers - including small home builders - to accelerate the construction of homes before 2024 to meet this standard.

Separately, the Scottish Government already provides funding to support the delivery of low carbon/ carbon neutral homes through schemes such as the Building Scotland Fund and our Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

In the Draft 2020-21 Budget we announced an ambitious and broad package of capital investment aimed at making demonstrable progress towards decarbonising our homes and buildings. This included a £120 million Heat Transition Deal, which will support the move to renewable and low carbon heat.

We have a number of programmes supporting the uptake of renewable and low carbon heating systems, including the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme, the District Heating Loan Fund, the Home Energy Scotland programme and the Warmer Homes Scotland programme.

The Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme and District Heating Loan Fund have together invested around £40 million in renewable heat since 2013. We also provide interest free and low cost loans for renewable technologies, whereby households can receive up to £17,500 interest free and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) up to £100,000 at 5% interest. Warmer Homes Scotland is the Scottish Government’s flagship fuel poverty scheme designed to tackle fuel poverty.

We offer the Energy Savings Trust Renewables Advice Service designed to offer free, impartial advice on energy saving, keeping warm at home, renewable energy, greener travel, cutting water waste and more.

The Scottish Government strongly encourages all employers to adopt Fair Work principles and apply a flexible approach to planning for and dealing with the potential impacts of COVID-19 on workers and workplaces.

Employment legislation, including for statutory sick pay (SSP) is reserved to the UK Government and while the change to day one SSP is welcomed, the UK Government must do all it can to provide all workers, including those not eligible for SSP, with the support that they need.

Workers on low income facing financial hardship due to self-isolation, such as those on Zero Hours or other precarious contracts, may be able access a discretionary Crisis Grant from the Scottish Welfare Fund. These grants are designed to provide a safety net for people when an emergency situation occurs, e.g. losing money or a job or experiencing an unexpected crisis and where there is an immediate threat to health and safety.

The Scottish Government is continuing to consider any additional support which may be offered to those on low income and affected by COVID-19.

The operations and maintenance of wind farms is a matter for the operator therefore the Scottish Government does not hold any information on projected demand for wind turbine decommissioning.

To date, only one wind farm in Scotland has been decommissioned and subsequently repowered.The original 3 turbine development, called Spurness, in northern Orkney was decommissioned and replaced with 5 newer models in 2012, known as ‘repowering’. The site now provides power to 12,000 homes a year, and provides operational jobs to the local community. More information can be found on the SSE website:

https://sse.com/whatwedo/ourprojectsandassets/renewables/Spurness .

The UK Government have also published a database, which details the progress of renewable electricity and storage projects from inception through to planning, construction, operation and decommissioning. Please use the following link to access this database:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment
_data/file/839368/Public-Database-September-2019.xlsx .

The Home Energy Scotland (HES) programme provides free, expert and impartial advice to householders to help overcome the understanding and awareness barriers to uptake of renewables, with much of that support focussed on alternatives to fossil fuel heating systems. In the 10 months to the end of January 2020 the specialist advice service provided over 3,100 unique households and over 470 landlords with bespoke advice, including over 2,270 property visits. HES loans, launched in May 2017, offers owner occupiers and some private sector landlords interest free loans for energy efficient and renewable measures. Increasing the uptake of HES loans is an important complement to this specialist advice service and HES are currently running a campaign on social media, radio and through direct mailing to raise awareness of the available financial assistance.

In the non-domestic sector, the Resource Efficient Scotland (RES) programme provides free, expert and impartial advice to Scottish SMEs, including on alternatives to fossil fuel heating systems. Between April 2019 and the end of January 2020 RES responded to over 1,800 enquiries from over 1,340 businesses and recommended biomass, air-source heat pumps or ground source heat pumps over 140 times, with these technologies included as an alternative worth considering a further 62 times.

Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) promote the SME loan fund through a number of channels, with implementation advisors recommending it to all customers who have had one-to-one support and an energy opportunities assessment, where projects may warrant funding. It is also promoted via ZWS's social media channels and digital media campaigns, as well as in the monthly ezine issued to Scottish SMEs.

The Scottish Government do not hold information on the number of wind turbines blades which are expected to be decommissioned in the next 10 years.

At present, up to 85% of wind turbine parts can be recycled and the Scottish Government strongly encourage the reuse, recycling and recovery of resources. Scotland already benefits from initiatives such as 'Renewable Parts', a recycling and repair centre which opened in Lochgilphead in 2018, and aims to significantly reduce the level of waste from decommissioning onshore wind farms by refurbishing parts for resale.

Additionally, the Scottish Government are aware of ongoing research and development, being undertaken by various institutions, on this issue and are fully supportive of this work and its alignment with our zero waste policies.

The operations and maintenance of wind farms is a matter for the operator. The Scottish Government regularly engages with wind farm operators and encourages the sector to reuse, recycle and recover resources wherever possible.

However the Scottish Government are aware of ongoing research and development, being undertaken by various institutions, on recycling and reuse of wind turbines. We are fully supportive of this work and its alignment with our zero waste policies.

The Scottish Government do not hold information on the number of wind turbines which have been decommissioned since 2010. Regarding disposal, I refer the member to answer to question S5W-27424 on 11 March 2020. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .