£30 billion funding needed for Scottish offshore wind sector

Speaking at an offshore wind conference, Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, informed that about £30 billion investment is required to grow Scotland’s offshore wind power industry.

Addressing over 200 representatives from the renewables and offshore oil sectors, Stuart highlighted that the economic opportunity in Scotland is huge. He said that the wind power sector will witness massive investment over the following years. At this time, new offshore wind farms are planned in seven sites off the eastern coast of Scotland, with projects in seas beyond the Firth of Forth and Moray Firth, as well as in Aberdeen Bay.

According to Stuart, the gas and oil sectors are poised to benefit from schemes that generate sufficient green energy to curb Scotland’s carbon gas emissions by about one-third. He further stated that energy facilities producing about 12 GW were likely to be built in Scottish waters as well.

The rapid construction of offshore wind energy capacity is vital to the delivery of the UK’s contribution to the EU target of 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020. In addition, renewable energy is central to the UK government’s goal to curb carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

In 2007, John Hutton proposed that about 33 GW wind energy capacity should be added by 2020 to provide about 25 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand. Currently, commercial wind farms in the UK only generate around 2.5 GW of capacity. But with one of the best wind conditions in Europe, the country’s wind energy sector is expected to be among the fastest growing markets.