First Minister Humza Yousaf announced plans to invest £500 million in anchoring a new offshore wind supply chain over the next five years.
The announcement came at the SNP’s annual national conference in Aberdeen on 17 October.
Yousaf described offshore wind infrastructure as both a climate-focused and economic investment, saying that developers had “indicated that there is the potential for £25 billion to be invested in the Scottish supply chain.”
Addressing the audience in Aberdeen, Yousaf described the city as “Europe’s energy capital.”
He conceded that Aberdeen oil and gas workers were “vital” to Scotland’s economy, but that “we need to look to the future” with green initiatives.
On the £500 million investment, SNP energy minister Gillian Martin said the project will bolster port infrastructure, allowing Scotland to “deliver” on its net zero goals.
This announcement comes in the wake of controversy surrounding ScotWind, the leasing process where Scottish offshore wind plots were auctioned to developers in 2022.
The auction resulted in 17 projects covering over 7,000 sq km of seabed – private oil companies such as BP and Shell were among the successful bidders.
Read More: UK Government grants 27 new North Sea oil and gas licences
A report from think tank Common Weal found that Scotland’s renewable resources had been undervalued by last year’s auction.
The report found that the lack of a Scottish public energy company attracted foreign investors, and a bid ceiling of £100,000 per square kilometre made the auction non-competitive.
In an interview with Independence Captured, Dr. Craig Dalzell, Head of Policy & Research at Common Weal said:
“A lot of foreign public energy companies will profit from Scottish wind resources, and those profits will flow back to their home countries where they will be subsidising public services. Scotland can’t do that, because we don’t have a public energy company in the first place.”
He also estimated that ScotWind had lost the country perhaps tens of billions of pounds in auction fees.
Reacting to the outcome of the auction, ALBA Party Depute Leader and MP for East Lothian Kenny MacAskill MP said:
“It looks like the Scottish Government have surrendered vast chunks of the North Sea wind resource for a relative pittance just as Westminster gave away Scotland’s oil in the 1970s.”
However, the Crown Estate Scotland, which managed the ScotWind auction, affirms that the project represents a notable step towards Scotland’s net zero goals and delivers £700m into the public pocket.
Simon Hodge, Chief Executive of Crown Estate Scotland stated that the project has set Scotland up to be a “major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come.”
Holyrood’s commitment to utilise Scotland’s green energy is challenged by Westminster, which is set to launch new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.
“Teeside Offshore Wind Farm” by howzey is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.