City could be at centre of offshore wind boom

Minister backs region to grasp ‘exciting new opportunity’

Aberdeen’s long-standing oil and gas pedigree could help the city become a natural headquarters for the UK floating wind industry, according to Scotland’s energy minister.

Paul Wheelhouse described the sector as a “huge opportunity” for the city as he announced a new floating offshore wind centre of excellence worth more than £1 million.

Mr Wheelhouse, speaking at the Floating Offshore Wind UK conference in Aberdeen yesterday, said the centre would help “drive forward” the next generation of offshore wind.

The plan is backed by £500,000 from the Scottish Government alongside match funding from the industry and the Offshore Renewable Energy (Ore) Catapult’s Welshbased Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE).

It is understood Aberdeen could be in with “a real chance” if the Scottish Government decides to create a hub.

A spokeswoman for Ore Catapult said the new floating offshore wind centre will “have a presence in Aberdeen” but will not be based there.

However, she added the Scottish Government may wish to create a hub based on the city’s “existing infrastructure”.

North-east oil and gas veteran Sir Ian Wood, whose organisation Opportunity North East (One) will partner on the project, called the floating wind sector an “exciting new opportunity on our doorstep”.

He said Aberdeen “could be riding high on floating wind” if the city “gets it right” over the next 10 years.

Mr Wheelhouse claimed Aberdeen’s investment in a new harbour and its longstanding oil and gas supply chain makes it an attractive option as a floating wind hub.

He added that the city had to exploit its “knowledge base”.

Mr Wheelhouse said: “I think floating wind is a huge opportunity for Aberdeen. Whether the city becomes the hub for it or not will depend a lot on the actions of local stakeholders and what the industry wants to do in terms of commercial decisions.”

He added that the strength of the northeast-headquartered oil and gas majors and tier one suppliers means people should “absolutely be seeing the industry and the city” as a potential floating wind centre.

Mr Wheelhouse revealed he had held “discussions” with Sir Ian Wood about the potential for the north-east to “lead in this area”.

However, he also called on the northeast oil and gas sector to step forward and make clear its intentions in the offshore wind sector in Scotland.

He said: “What I would say is that I would love to see some of the tier ones based in the north-east and active in the oil and gas sector, so we can start to see those supplier and tier one relationships developing the way they already have in the oil and gas industry for decades.

“It’s still early days, but there’s still a real opportunity for this technology to be developed here, but it will take oil and gas companies who have the balance sheet strength to start investing in this area,” added the minister.

The advancement of floating wind is seen as vital if the UK is to deliver on its offshore wind growth target of 30 gigawatts by 2030.

As part of the recently announced Offshore Wind Sector Deal, the UK also aims to meet the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendation of 75 gigawatts by 2050.

Sir Ian said: “With more offshore installations than any other country, the world’s largest floating wind farm and plans for a seven-fold increase in capacity, this is a very exciting time for our offshore wind sector.

“The new floating wind centre of excellence will play a vital role in helping the UK leverage its leadership position, connecting our strong regional clusters to drive innovation and collaboration.”

Chris Hill, Ore Catapult’s operational performance director, said the plans had already had “strong interest” from French oil and gas giant Total, Equinor, Mainstream Renewable Power and EDP Renewables.

He added: “Our team of innovation experts and engineers will work across industry and academia to accelerate floating offshore wind technology deployment and de-risk and encourage innovation to ensure we deliver UK economic benefit from the global growth of floating offshore wind – growing local supply chains and delivering UK content and jobs.”

“I think floating wind is a huge opportunity for Aberdeen”

The prizes on offer for being firmly at the vanguard of the floating wind industry are indeed as “immense” as we heard yesterday from the experts. In a world ever more urgently pondering the question of how to create a sustainable future, it appears to offer one of the most promising answers.

And if that proves the case, it offers a tantalising glimpse of great economic success, including the creation of many thousands of jobs.

Few regions appear better placed than ours to reap the rich benefits of that enormous potential.

Not only has the technology already been proved off our coasts, but we have decades of accumulated energy expertise and established supply chains.

On paper then, the north-east would seem the natural choice to host the headquarters of this push towards creating a large-scale new industry.

Nothing must be taken for granted though as there are others who will happily make their own claims on the privilege.

Securing the crown will take a concerted effort to show the will to make it a success.

That requires both the oil and gas industry and the Scottish Government to continue to show that they are serious about making the necessary reforms.

So long as that happens, then the wind ought to be very much in our sails.

“Few regions appear better placed than ours to reap the rich benefits of that potential”