When Alex Salmond said in 2011 that “Scotland had won the energy lottery, not once but twice”, and that Scotland was set to become “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy”  he was absolutely correct. We won this geological and geographic lottery firstly with the discovery of oil and now we have won it again with 25% of Europe’s wind and tidal energy opportunity and 10% of its wave energy resource.

In the modern world energy is the king of all commodities. That is why oil was often referred to as black gold. Shortly after Scotland’s oil reserves were discovered, Scottish Office economist professor Gavin McCrone suggested that an Independent Scotland would have “a chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe".

What was true of oil back then is equally true of renewable energy now. More so in fact, as was delightfully and ironically highlighted a few years ago by the hapless UKIP candidate who publicly asked the question,

‘what happens when the renewable energy runs out?’

It appears that he was the only person in Scotland who didn’t know that unlike oil and gas, renewable energy is never going to run out.

Expert estimates suggest that we in Scotland have easily enough renewable energy resources to meet over ten times our own energy need. That staggering fact means that an Independent Scotland could be set for an undreamed of prosperity stretching far into the future. Economic multipliers would abound, especially if we were smart enough to compound our good fortune with an industrial policy that sought maximum effect from our superabundance of energy. Energy intensive processes like aluminium smelting, steel making and many others would have an undreamt of comparative advantage.

Not only would Scotland prosper but we would become the green energy capital of the world, producing amongst other highly desirable and valuable commodities, green steel, green aluminium and green hydrogen.

Hydrogen is the answer to our carbon free heating problem. Hydrogen is the answer to a large portion of our transport emissions problem. Hydrogen is the answer to a significant slice of our energy storage problem. Hydrogen is the energy dense super fuel that can directly replace fossil fuels, in many cases utilising existing infrastructure.

Imagine an Independent Scotland in which clean green industrial innovation would flourish like never before with a portion of energy profits channelled into more and more world class energy research, like Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre on steroids. Little Scotland could literally lead the rest of the world out of the climate change crisis.

That is just one of the reasons why Westminster are so determined not to let us go, or at least delay our independence until our renewable energy resources have been safely sold off and captured by the big business friends of Boris Johnson.

And that is just one of the reasons why there is an urgency in seeking Independence.

Alex Salmond also famously said that, “Scotland was the only country in the world that struck oil and got poorer”. Our oil was literally stolen. The opportunity for lasting long term prosperity that oil and gas represented was recklessly squandered. We simply must not let that happen again with renewable energy.

Alba members already understand the urgency of Independence. Other Yes supporters are increasingly realising this too.

That is why Alba is rising.