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We've been hearing a lot recently about Scottish independence. The Scots shave a vision of their economy post independence as one that is driven by clean energy generation.

However some interesting statistics have recently emerged that cast doubt on whether or not they could create such an economy.

At the moment the creation of renewable electricity generation requires massive subsidies from the Government to make it economically viable. It costs about 3 times as much to generate a megawatt of electricity from wind or solar power as it does from oil or gas.

Scotland currently has 50% of the UK wind generating capacity for electricity. 37% of all renewable electricity is generated in Scotland.

Scotland has, therefore, had massive subsidies from the taxpayer to create this industry. The problem is that only 7% of these subsidies were generated by the Scottish taxpayer. The other 93% came from the rest of the UK's taxpayers.

In order to create a renewable's sector large enough to meet the Government targets, Scotland needs a further £40 billion of subsidies.

Trouble is, if they are not part of the UK, Scotland cannot generate this sort of tax revenue to pay for it.

Alex Salmond's dream of a Scottish economy built on energy generation looks pie in the sky.