The Energy Saving Trust has recently published its report on progress in Scotland entitled “Supporting Scotland’s Green Ambitions: December 2024 report.”
The Energy Saving Trust receives many enquiries about how the programmes it delivers on behalf of the Scottish Government work and what changes they deliver on the ground. These are from both organisations seeking to inform policy in other parts of the UK as well as from stakeholders in other parts of Europe and beyond, keen to learn more about the Scottish experience.
This publication responds to that demand for information and is updated annually to reflect relevant programme developments over the course of each year and to provide up to date information on impact. This is the report’s fourth annual update and it presents data for 2022-23 and where available data for 2023-24.
A key, distinctive element of the policy landscape for home energy in Scotland is the focus given to expert, personalised and impartial advice. We provide these via Home Energy Scotland and Business Energy Scotland. This is alongside access to green finance, which supports people and businesses to act on energy efficiency and decarbonisation. Some of these programmes also cover wider support to address fuel poverty. For example, helping people get on the right energy tariff and access the benefits they’re entitled to.
Some of the Headline stats from the report are:
Home Energy Scotland
- The lifetime carbon saved by customers using the network in 2022-23 is estimated to be more than 716,500 tonnes CO2.
- In 2022-23, after receiving advice from a HES adviser, 42% of customers installed at least one energy efficiency, low carbon heat or renewable energy improvement, with 42% of customers planning to in the next 12 months.
- Of the improvements installed in 2022-23, the top two attributed to Home Energy Scotland advice were air source heat pumps (81%) and solar PV (74%).
- Between 2023-24, the specialist advice service for private landlords provided advice to 697 customers, covering 917 privately rented properties.
Business Energy Scotland
- In 2022-23, after receiving advice, more than 60% of businesses installed one of the recommended measures in full, in part, or had taken a similar action.
- The total lifetime savings achieved by businesses that can be directly attributed to Business Energy Scotland are just under 35,000tCO2e for actioned measures, equating to a lifetime cost saving of £45.7m a year.
Financial support
- The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme is highly influential and cost-effective in encouraging households to install renewables systems, with 91% of funded actions partly attributed to the scheme and 56% wouldn’t have happened without it.
- From inception to 31 March 2023, the SME Loan Scheme has paid out almost £50m in financial support for loans and cashback, funding more than 2,000 projects.
- Support from Business Energy Scotland and the SME Loan Scheme was a large influence on businesses’ decision to install measures in 2022-23, with more than 45% stating that they wouldn’t have installed the improvement without funding and more than 25% stating that the funding allowed them to install the measure(s) sooner.
For further information, please contact Niroshini Bodinagoda.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 