In Focus - Discover Scotland: Experience the Best of Scotland - page 598

The Scottish National Party (SNP), which had led a minority government in Edinburgh
since 2007, surprised the nation in the 2011 elections with a landslide victory in the Scot-
tish parliament, winning 69 out of 129 seats. Suddenly the question of Scotland breaking
away from the UK was all over the news.
The election of a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government in Westminster in 2010
only served to heighten the political difference between Scotland and the rest of the UK -
only one of Scotland's 59 constituencies returned a Conservative MP, while the Labour
Party (which was defeated in Westminster) increased its share of the Scottish vote.
The SNP has pledged to hold a referendum in the autumn of 2014 on whether Scotland
should have full independence. Current opinion polls suggest that at least two-thirds of
Scots are happy with the status quo, but with the state of the UK economy, who knows
what might happen down the line.
Renewable Energy
One of the central planks of the SNP's vision for an independent Scotland is its energy
policy. Party leader Alex Salmond has said he wants the country to be the 'Saudi Arabia
of renewable energy' - becoming self-sufficient in energy by 2020, and a net exporter of
'clean' electricity.
In the first half of the 20th century the Scottish Highlands was one of the first regions in
the world to develop hydroelectric power on a large scale, and in the past decade, wind
turbines have sprung up all over the place. By 2009, renewables provided 27% of Scot-
land's energy consumption, a figure that rose to 35% in 2011; the government's target is to
reach 100% by 2020.
However, the future of Scotland's energy industry lies not on land, but in the sea: Scot-
land has access to 25% of Europe's available tidal energy, and 10% of its wave power.
The country is at the leading edge of developing wave, tidal and offshore wind power, and
in 2012 the waters around Orkney and the Pentland Firth were designated as a Marine En-
ergy Park.
Development vs Conservation
In 2010 the Scottish government gave the go-ahead to a 135-mile, high-voltage overhead
power line from Beauly (near Inverness) to Denny in Stirlingshire, to connect wind- and
marine-generated electricity from the north to the heart of the national grid. It will be car-
ried on 600 giant pylons marching through some of the Highlands' most scenic areas, in-
cluding Strathglass, Fort Augustus and Bridge of Tummel.