There will always be some, including a certain American billionaire, who
hate the idea of offshore wind farms; there will always be others who think
they are rather beautiful.
Regardless of the individual’s point of view, offshore wind power has an
important part to play in finding the right mix of energy for Scotland.
What’s more, offshore wind farms appear to have the enthusiastic support of
the Scottish Government.
The support of the UK Government, on the other hand, looks less certain
after news that SSE, one of the biggest players in offshore wind in
Scotland, is reviewing its strategy and plans for a number of projects
which include one near Islay, one at Hunterston and another in the Firth of
Forth.
SSE says the reason for its review is the decision of the UK Government not
to earmark two other SSE schemes for possible subsidy, one off Suffolk and
the other in Caithness. The projects were left off a list of wind farms
seen as provisionally affordable, which may indicate they are unlikely to
attract Government money in the long term.
SSE says it is disappointed and has indicated that it will make a final
decision on whether to proceed in the next few months, although no final
decision has been made by the Government and the subsidies may still go
ahead in the longer term.
Whatever happens, SSE and other developers are right to be uneasy about the
direction in which the UK Government appears to be heading on this issue –
and about the potential for jobs and investment to be lost. Estimates of
the economic importance of offshore wind farms to Scotland vary but a
report commissioned by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Renewables in 2010
said the industry could create anything up to 48,000 jobs by 2020. It also
suggested a boost to the economy of £7.1 billion.
Scottish Renewables restates that economic importance of offshore wind
power today, and has said Scotland cannot afford to see the SSE projects,
and the investment they would attract, left in limbo. As Scottish
Renewables says, Scotland has the right ingredients to build a world-class
offshore wind sector. Not only that, the potential of tidal energy is also
great, as The Herald reported on Monday. The Pentland Firth, for example,
could generate 1.9 gigawatts of tidal energy.
However, all of this potential needs to be unlocked and that requires
support from government and investment to back it up. One possible
incentive is that (American billionaires who own golf courses aside)
offshore wind farms do not attract the same opposition as onshore projects,
although the fishing industry does have some concerns.
Offshore farms do face some of the problems onshore ones do (notably, the
issue of how to store electricity) but they can make an important
contribution to the Scottish Government’s promise that Scotland will meet
all of its electricity needs from renewables by 2020. However, they will
never make that contribution unless they receive the support they need from
government, in Edinburgh and in London.
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