Fossil Fuel Decline and the Rural Economy: The Case of Scotland

Abstract

Using the lens of socio-technical regimes and transitions, the succession of socio-technical transitions from pre-industrial largely renewable energy, through water power, coal, hydropower, oil and gas and now renewables is explored in relation to rural Scotland. It is evident that the exploitation of energy has had major impacts on rural Scotland, and these may be more important in terms of major spatial and temporal demographic and economic variations than changes in the traditional primary land-based industries. It is evident that rather than there being a switch from one regime to another, the processes of regime change are uneven and partial, with legacies of earlier regimes lingering long for a variety of reasons. The impacts of these different regimes were formerly almost exclusively market-driven, but since nationalisation of coal and energy production and, in spite of subsequent privatisation, public policy now sits alongside markets as a major influence on rural development outcomes. The capital-intensive nature of contemporary renewable energy systems means that modest employment is created in construction and even less in maintenance and monitoring. However, where community ownership has been asserted this offers highly significant revenue streams to support rural development, and alongside landowner renewables development, helps to retain benefit streams within the rural economy.