[NeedMoreTea]

It's the Orkney interconnect that's at capacity. They really need an extra one.

Sure it's a lot of PR, but it's not just empty PR with a grid that's controlled mainland wide, and chooses sources minute to minute depending on availability, demand and price it's the best they can do. Scotland can, and does, encourage a much healthier approach to the adoption of renewables than Westminster. With more powers to the regions outside London, including Holyrood, so much more could, and would be done.

You can make the same criticism for every use of home solar panels, of green suppliers, of the whole transition to sustainable, and even of the entire markets for gas and electric considering we can't segregate individual electrons and atoms.

It's kind of hard to get Scotland figures alone because there is no separate Scottish grid, nor interconnects as such, just the mainland National Grid encompassing the three mainland countries. It's accounting, but it's not silly, it's the market we're all forced to participate in. We could have more precise regional figures with regional grids with interconnects between. We're not really large enough to need or justify that. Scottish independence, if it ever comes, might well see a Scottish grid as separate entity.

[makomk]

You're right that the same criticism could and perhaps sometimes should be aimed at "net zero" homes with solar. Arguably solar is even worse than wind in the UK, because we're so far north that it has an awful capacity factor and it reliably drops off when power is needed the most. Ecohomes and net-zero homes have extra insulation that does provide a benefit in winter, but home solar alone is dubious. (The UK government also basically killed off subsidies for it.) It's a little more useful in countries closer to the equator with better capacity factors and summer aircon rather than winter heating, since output is reasonably closely correlated to demand then, but still won't get us to actual zero even there.

[NeedMoreTea]

No it's not dubious at all. It's hilariously beneficial considering how far north we are, where I honestly thought it would be very borderline, and probably not worth it at all.

We just about eliminated the electricity component of the typical UK supply of electricity and gas for heating. That's not net zero, or creative accounting, that's actually eliminate use of grid electric for nine or ten months, with a little use in winter. That only because of switching water heating to the panels, that was previously on gas. We're in N Cumbria.