Scotland's renewable energy consumption has went below its target levels seven years early, the Scottish Government has announced.

A record amount of the country's electricity was generated from renewables in the first half of 2015.

Statistics published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change show a 13.5% increase in renewable electricity generation compared to the first half of 2014.

The Scottish Government's target to reduce consumption by 12% by 2020 is already at the required level in 2013, down by 13.3% from the 2005/07 baseline.

Statistics show:

• Scotland generated 4,832 GWh of renewable electricity in the second quarter of 2015, a 37.3% increase in renewable electricity from the same quarter in 2014.

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• Wind and hydro output increased by 52.2% and 27% respectively compared to same quarter last year.

• At the end of Q2 2015, there was 7,444 MW of installed renewable electricity capacity in Scotland, an increase of 5.5% from end of Q2 2014.

However, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing warned that progress towards decarbonising electricity generation is being put at risk by the recent plans from the UK to remove support from renewable generation earlier than previously planned.

He said: "Scotland has made great progress in increasing the amount of clean, green electricity in our energy mix. However we are very concerned that the damaging and premature cuts to support for renewable energy being driven through by the UK Government will hamper future progress.

"If they are going to pursue this policy there should be a sufficiently flexible grace period covering projects already in the planning system. This flexibility would ensure companies and communities are not penalised unfairly by the UK Government policy change where they have already invested."

(LM/CD)