A new independent report commissioned by the Scottish Government and offshore wind industry and led by Professor Sir Jim McDonald has set out a series of five recommendations to transform how Scottish companies secure work in offshore wind.
The report’s five main recommendations are:
- The offshore wind sector’s priority must be the establishment of a collaboration framework focused on building confidence amongst Scottish ports, so that required investment is brought forward in time. The immediate priority of such a collaborative framework is supporting the creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster
- Support Scottish suppliers and get them ready to bid for and win work
- Celebrate and sell Scottish success
- Plan for future growth and the next generation of innovations
- Plan for energy transition and a future of far-from-shore, mixed-use energy projects.
The SIA recommends a focus on bringing the manufacture of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.
It highlights a low-regret option to invest in an additional 22 hectares of port capacity suitable for offshore wind platform fabrication that could deliver £1.5 billion in economic benefit to Scotland. This initial investment could help underpin longer-term growth in port space, and further investment in port capacity could grow this figure to £4.5 billion.
To help ports invest so they are ready to support projects coming out of the current ScotWind Leasing round run by Crown Estate Scotland, a new partnership approach will be needed.
The independent Strategic Investment Assessment (SIA) report was commissioned by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council, an industry-government group.
