r/Glasgow Tools

Sure.
First of all Scotland doesn't "*\[make\] enough green energy for our entire country from wind alone*". Sometimes (and not frequently) wind peaks and generates more than 100%. It's by no means a reliable source of anything like 100%. We have the predicted capacity to serve up about 75% of our renewable needs, currently.


Now, "*We’re just not allowed to keep it.*". I'm not sure who you think isn't letting you keep it but Scotland "*keeps*" about all it can manage, which is between 30-60% of our consumed power being generated from renewables. Depending on sun, wind and rain. That which is lost to Scotland is lost because Scotland hasn't invested in the infrastructure to use it yet, so the excess that we cannot store or use is shipped and sold elsewhere.

​

It's worth noting that we don't switch the sun, wind or rain on and off in Scotland and that means when we under-generate, we need to compensate or draw from stores and when we over-generate, we need to store till we have a generation deficit.

​

Now there are [figures out there](https://www.scottishrenewables.com/our-industry/statistics) which will tell you we "*generated 80, 90, 100+% of our energy usage this year*". But these are figures with an agenda. What they don't tell you is that we could barely use 30-50% of it because we don't have the capacity to store and it needs to be shipped off because you don't just bin energy, it's energy, it needs to go somewhere.


So in summary, most years we don't make enough "green energy" to power the whole of Scotland and if we did, we are physically incapable of utilising it because of infrastructural concerns. Lastly, nobody is taking it from us. Put your persecution complex down for a second and try think independently.