This is pointless: Scotland is already self-sufficient on renewables. What we need is a new grid interconnect between Scotland and England so we can export our surplus energy to the south!
It's all about the lobbyists, of course:
"Its ambitions for up to a quarter of all electricity to come from nuclear power by 2050 are being led by government-backed body Great British Nuclear." (Who?)
@cstross So you think its less about Scotland than lobbyists. Might there be other aspects? For example, browse a casual map of undersea power links with Ireland and mainland. Could the site be connected to planned or existing DC-linkage infrastructure?
During the engineering work for the supersonic Concorde in England, "Thunderbirds" TV series creator Gerry Anderson was visiting the main facility one day. Someone asked him what he did for a living. Feeling massively outranked by all the engineering talent surrounding him there, he quietly replied that he made children's TV shows. Asked which ones, he mentioned Thunderbirds.
Within minutes he was surrounded by Concorde engineers who wanted to talk to him and shake his hand, many of whom told him it was his shows that had inspired them toward engineering careers, because they wanted to actually build the planes and rockets he had in his series. He was flabbergasted.
The original Star Trek had a similar effect on many career choices.
Now of course, TV mostly inspires people toward careers as lazy bums or crooks.