New projects could charge ahead by cutting red tape
IF Scotland is to meet its low carbon targets, then there is no time to waste when it comes to constructing its offshore wind infrastructure. Building 50 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2050 is going to be a huge challenge, so things need to move quickly.
The British Energy Security Strategy, published last month points out that the transition away from oil and gas depends critically on how quickly renewable sources of power can be rolled out.
It says that investment into new British industries including offshore wind is set to amount to £100 billion by 2030, with no less than 480,000 green jobs created by the end of the decade.
To speed up the process of change, the strategy calls for red tape in areas such as achieving consents to be reduced. The document commits the government to cutting approval times for new offshore wind farms from four years to just one.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, speaks in the document of “slashing our way through needless and repetitive red tape” to allow things to happen quickly. He adds: “Energy companies tell me they can get an offshore wind turbine upright and generating in less than 24 hours, but that it can take as much as 10 years to secure the licences and permissions required to do so.”
Mary Thorogood also believes that the main challenge in terms of wind project development is bringing projects forward quickly. “How do we make our consenting more efficient? How do we collaborate more on sharing data, particularly between wind and oil and gas?
“There's also the issue of connection to the grid. The first Scotwind projects aren't due to connect to that until the late 2020s. We need some of them to be sooner.”
Investors, she adds, are now keen to become involved. “There really is an appetite out there, and it's the big investors – companies like BP and Shell. This isn't a cottage industry anymore. It's an established industry that serious investors put their money in.
“That's a very important signal for Scotland on the world stage. We want to lead this race and with so many countries trying to follow, showing our level of ambition is important. We now need to accelerate that delivery.”
To meet the challenge of building its energy future, Scotland needs to make the most of its natural advantages such as good seabeds and high winds. With smarter planning, the pace of deployment of wind technology can be increased by 25 per cent.
“I think we all know where we've got to be”, says Mary Thorogood. “The only way we can approach this is with a real sense of optimism and a can-do attitude.
“We've got the wind and we've got the supply chain.
“We have to now look at how we connect up the power from Scotland and some of that from English waters to the rest of Europe.
“We're really near places like The Netherlands and we know how to build cables to link projects up. Connecting the whole of Europe on a grid in the future is something that is potentially really exciting.”
In a separate move, bidding is now underway for green freeports in Scotland, following on from the model in England and Wales announced last year.
“This brings various tax, investment and customs benefits. There will be two sites and they will be really attractive for the supply chain and for innovation.
“They will add up to a really coherent offer for investors.