Scotsman: Shale and renewables can form ‘symbiotic’ links

Developing shale gas will not kill off Scotland’s burgeoning renewable energy industry, a Citigroup analyst will tell a major conference in Edinburgh this week.

Recent research has suggested that the country may be sitting on up to £5 billion of gas reserves, which could be extracted using the controversial technique known as “fracking”.

While the shale gas boom in the United States has unlocked huge deposits of cheap hydrocarbons and led to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, Scotland has chosen the renewables path.

But in key research to be presented at Scottish Renewables’ annual conference, Jason Channell, director of alternative energy at Citi Research, will argue that shale gas and renewables can form a “symbiotic relationship”.   MORE