Stage 3: Cycling under the rain to Whitelee!
Today it has been a hard and rainy day, but we keep our moral high as we arrive to Motherwell and get closer to Glasgow, our final destination. Leaving the seashore in Troon behind, we have entered an agricultural and farming area as we rode towards Whitelee, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK, which generates up to 539 MW of electricity, enough to power more than 350,000 households.
Although the bad weather made it impossible to ride through the trails that connect its 215 wind turbines, we were able to appreciate their size and greatness and discover the realities of renewable energies at first hand.
Whitelee is a great illustration of the technological disruption that we are witnessing. Decarbonisation scenarios that a few years ago seemed impossible are now viable, due to technological process which continues to spur competitive and cost-effective solutions in all sectors. In the energy sector, which is responsible for two-thirds of global emissions, solutions needed by 2030 to decarbonise our energy system, both on the generation and demand side, are already available. However, as shown by the World Energy Outlook 2021, worldwide energy emissions increased in 2021, as growth resumed after the pandemic, and scientists alert that this transition is not taking place fast enough to keep warming levels aligned with 1.5°C. Policy and innovation support should thus be reinforced to bring promising technologies to market.
Don´t miss the views of our experts on the technological disruption that is taking place here.
The low carbon energy transition is just one of the key deliverables to achieving ~NetZero at COP26 – however it stands to act as the catalyst for several others. We need to electrify everything using clean, green power – ScottishPower is leading the way with 100% green generation.Lindsay McQuade - CEO ScottishPower Renewables
My work with IRENA reminds me every day that a clean, renewable energy future is not only possible, but also inevitable. The only question is whether the energy transition will happen in time to stave off a climate catastrophe. I urge the negotiators in Glasgow to clarify the concrete action they will be taking over the next 10 years not only to implement the Paris agreement, but to further ratchet up ambition.Claire Kiss - Associate Programme Officer, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Despite progress ahead of COP26, current climate pledges close less than 20% of the emissions gap between today’s policy settings and a net-zero by 2050 path. Technologies and policies, of which over 40% are cost-effective, can close this gap by 2030.Luca Lo Re - International climate policy analyst, International Energy Agency
Realizing the promise of Paris will require drawing the energy and climate change communities together in a closer, more trusting partnership.Paul Simons - Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University