What Alternatives to Fossil Fuels?
Fossil fuels make up over 70% of Scotland’s total energy consumption, mostly as heat.(2) If we are serious about combatting global warming, we will need to find alternatives to burning coal, oil and gas on our present scale. Scotland’s climate and topography provide it with a great diversity and extent of theoretical renewable energy resources, whose use could reduce our fossil fuel dependence. One long term solution is to develop heat-producing renewable energy technologies to produce synthetic liquid and gaseous fuels, made from “biomass”, such as coppiced wood, straw and oil seed crops. These still emit CO2, but are “greenhouse neutral”, because they only return to the atmosphere what the tree or plant had previously extracted by photosynthesis. There is not a strong economic incentive to develop these in a climate of cheap fossil fuels, however. Wastes from agriculture, industry and municipalities are another source of heating, especially when used in local combined heat and power
