Environment and climate change

There is mounting evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change. Our planet’s resources are under greater strain than ever before, and there is a significant body of research suggesting that supply of fossil fuels is likely to peak within the next few years – a position known as ‘peak oil’.

As one of the UK’s largest producers of energy, one of SSE’s key goals is to ensure we generate electricity in more sustainable ways.

SSE is working towards this in three ways:

• Increasing the amount of electricity generated from renewable and other low carbon sources.
• Investing to reduce the environmental impact of electricity generated at its coal and gas-fired power stations.
• Investing in emerging technologies to deliver positive changes in energy production.

SSE is committed to reducing the carbon dioxide intensity of electricity produced at our power stations by 50% over the period from 2005/06, the first full year after SSE acquired coal-fired power stations, to 2020.

Since 2005/06 we have:

• completed or begun work on many renewable generation projects, including the Glendoe hydro scheme, many onshore wind farms and what will be Europe’s largest offshore wind farm at Greater Gabbard;
• installed more efficient turbines at six of the eight turbines at our Fiddler’s Ferry and Ferrybridge coal-fired power stations;
• Increased the capacity of its coal-fired power stations to generate electricity from biomass.
• acquired Dublin-based Airtricity, making SSE the largest operator of wind farms across the UK and Ireland;
• been awarded exclusive development rights to develop 400MW of wave and tidal energy in Pentland Firth and Orkney waters and a further 400MW with partners Aquamarine and OpenHydro.; and
• commissioned to full operation the 840MW Marchwood combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power station. SSE has 50% ownership of Marchwood and the station's output is contracted to us. Marchwood is one of the most efficient gas power stations in the UK with a carbon efficiency of 58%, compared to a UK average of 50%, contributing to reducing the overall carbon efficiency of SSE’s portfolio.

In 2011/12 we have:

• reached over 1GW of onshore wind farm capacity in operation;
• opened the UK’s largest Carbon Capture (CC) pilot plant at Ferrybridge, in conjunction with Doosan Babcock and Vattenfall, supported by funding of £6.3m from DECC, Northern Way and the Technology Strategy Board;
• got consent to develop a 108MW multi-fuel plant alongside our Fiddler’s Ferry power station;
• entered into a joint development agreement with Shell UK Ltd in relation to the Carbon, Capture and Storage (CCS) plans at Peterhead gas power station; and
• passed the previous record of 3,890GWh (gigawatt hours) for hydro-electric output.