FOI/202500488967 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Renewable Energy costs in A Fresh Start with Independence: EIR release
Information requested
A Fresh Start with Independence, published on 8th October 2025, includes the following remark: “The Scottish Government would work to ensure any lower cost of renewables is passed through to customers”
The Scottish Government may be aware that renewables with higher costs also exist, and are particularly prevalent in Scotland. Would these higher costs also be passed through to consumers? If not, who does the Scottish Government envisage would pay for higher-cost renewables?
Response
As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Some of the information you have requested is available from a UK Government publication “Electricity Generation Costs”. The report presents levelised costs for electricity generation technologies. A “levelised cost” is the average cost of the lifetime of the plant per MWh of electricity generated. They reflect the cost of building, operating, and decommissioning a generic plant for each technology. This is a recognised and widely used method for comparing the average costs of energy generation across different technologies. The latest UK Government publication can be found here: Electricity generation costs 2023 - GOV.UK
Under current market arrangements, gas almost always sets the wholesale price of electricity in Great Britain, meaning that, even when it is windy in Scotland with an abundance of renewable generation, Scotland faces high electricity prices.
As set out in the publication to which you refer, with independence, Scotland would decide its own energy market arrangements, including decisions about the determination of energy prices and resulting energy bills.
In the event of Scotland becoming an independent country, decisions about energy prices would ultimately be a matter for the elected government of the day.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.
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