10 October 2006
Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary, has highlighted the need for the government to pursue cleaner and greener sources of energy.
His comments tie in with the launch of a new consultation into renewable energy today and also the opening of the new £300 million Whitelee project, which will be the largest onshore wind farm in Europe.
Among the issues the consultation aims to deal with is how to generate at least 20% of the UK's electricity needs through renewable energy by 2020.
Mr Darling told BBC Radio Scotland: "The reason for the consultation is actually to see whether or not the renewables obligation, which is the requirement on power companies to produce electricity from renewable sources, whether or not we shouldn't change that to encourage more offshore, more wave, marine-generated power.
"The renewable obligation that we implemented is the main reason that we've been able to come off a very low base to get so much energy generated from wind and in the future from tidal as well.
"We are making substantial progress. We want to get up to 20%. What we're consulting on today is how we get other forms of energy, especially offshore, wave power as well, so we can get a good spread of generation."
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