Simon Bain
Business Correspondent/Personal Finance Editor
Ignacio Galán, chairman of ScottishPower, has outlined the group’s
strategy for further multi-billion pound investments in renewables in the
UK, with a strong focus on Scotland, in a lecture at the University of
Strathclyde.
Mr Galan, chairman and chief executive of ScottishPower’s owner Iberdrola,
said new capacity in both pumped storage and gas-fired generation was
essential to managing the UK’s power system, given the variability of
output from renewables such as wind and solar.
He said pumped storage was the most efficient way of storing energy, and
added: “It is important to have a regulatory framework that ensures the
economic viability of these facilities. If this was the case in the UK we
could develop our plan to increase the capacity of ScottishPower’s Cruachan
pump storage plant, already the largest in Scotland.”
Mr Galán acknowledged that currently investment costs for offshore wind
were significantly higher than for onshore wind, but said: “I firmly
believe that significant cost reductions will be achieved over the next
five years.”
He said a key issue would be larger turbines, noting that 8MW prototypes
are currently under consideration, and that Iberdrola has major projects
under development including ScottishPower’s planned East Anglia One scheme
in the North Sea, which could total up to 1200MW.
ScottishPower was currently collaborating with the University of
Strathclyde to develop floating foundations for use in deeper waters,
working alongside the Offshore Renewable Energy Research Centre, Mr Galán
said.
At the policy level, Mr Galán said it was essential that governments
across Europe, including the UK, put in place strong frameworks to
encourage more investment in renewables, including “a strong market-based
CO2 price signal”.
Mr Galan urged engineering students to take up the challenges. “Scotland
and Scottish engineers have a long history of leading the world in
engineering innovation,” he said. “With huge global investments to
decarbonise the energy sector and modernise electricity grids, engineering
graduates have a world of opportunities in front of them…..we are one of
very few sectors offering lifelong career opportunities and employment.”
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