The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Firm ‘spent years’ trying to convince giants on project
One of the developers behind a major Scottish floating wind project has shed light on the key role it played in persuading a cabling giant to build a factory in the Highlands.
Trading house Marubeni said it “spent three years trying to convince” fellow Japanese company Sumitomo to create a new facility in Scotland to capitalise on the ScotWind seabed leasing round and future wind farm projects offshore.
Sumitomo recently unveiled plans for a new cabling plant tailored towards offshore wind. Details of the exact location are not known but it will be in the Highlands.
The investment was announced during a Scottish trade mission to Japan last month.
Sumitomo said it expected the UK to be “one of the largest markets for power cables”.
And there may be more to come – Tomoki Nishino, chief executive of Marubeni Europower, said talks were now taking place with “multiple other supply chain companies”.
Speaking at the brand launch for the Ossian wind farm, which Marubeni is building in partnership with SSE Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Mr Nishino said: “I always ask myself, what value can Marubeni bring?
“One key thing is that we are an Asian player. Take Sumitomo and the announcement they have decided to build a factory in the Highlands.
“We spent three years trying to convince them to build a facility in Scotland. So that’s a job well done.
“But we are speaking with multiple other supply chain companies that like to invest in things like ports. We are very conscious to use our Asian network and strengths to bring value to Ossian and ScotWind.”
The Ossian project is one of 20 offshore developments secured by ScotWind, the results of which were announced last year.
Ossian’s project partners are aiming for 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of green energy capacity, enough to power nearly six million homes annually, spread over more than 330 square miles of seabed.
It is a first foray into floating technology for offshore wind giant SSE Renewables.
Brian McFarlane, the company’s head of offshore projects, said: “The overall project over its lifetime is going to provide £8 billion to the Scottish economy, of which £3.8bn will be realised during the development, construction and first six years of operation.
“The way we’ve set Ossian up, there is a potential for us to deliver the whole project this decade.
“If that were to be secured, then in essence nearly £4bn of economic value could be added to the Scottish economy by the middle of the next decade, which would be a huge catalyst.”
We are speaking with multiple other supply chains