The Importance of Revenue Sharing for the Local Economic Impacts of a Renewable Energy Project: A Social Accounting Matrix Approach

摘要

Recent UK and Scottish government policy has sought to increase the share of electricity generated from renewable energy technologies. As stated in the 2007 Energy White Paper (DTI, 2007), renewable energy technologies can contribute to UK energy diversity as well as to meeting national environmental targets. While most energy issues in Scotland are reserved to the UK Government, some aspects of policy have been devolved to the Scottish Government, including responsibility for encouraging the development of renewable energy technologies at the regional level, as well as powers under Section 36 of the Electricity Act (1989) for all electricity generating projects with an installed capacity greater than 50MW. The current Scottish Government has a target of 50% of the electricity in Scotland to be generated by renewable energy sources by 2020 (Scottish Government, 2007).