We have all the skills to deliver a just transition

Energy transition is the most important challenge and opportunity facing us today. We need to switch from fossil fuels to green energy as quickly as possible, without turning off all the lights.

That means it has to be a balanced, carefully planned transformation of energy supply.

It needs to be a just transition too. Here in the north-east, tens of thousands of jobs still depend on oil and gas, and so do most businesses and households.

We’re forging ahead with the development of renewables, but that doesn’t mean we can turn off the tap on hydrocarbons just yet.

Sir Ian Wood, the northeast’s leading authority on the energy industry, has criticised proposals to end all new oil and gas licences, saying it makes “absolutely no sense” to reduce reliance on domestic oil and gas only to increase imports from overseas and place in jeopardy tens of thousands of jobs.

Over the past 50 years, 47 billion barrels of oil have been extracted, with another 25bn still under the seabed. But last year the UK produced just 38 million tonnes of oil, down from 150m at the industry’s peak in 2000. That’s 20m tonnes less than we need, forcing us to import oil.

The UK still relies on oil and gas for 75% of our total energy. That’s why the UK

Government’s windfall taxes on the North Sea are so concerning.

Raising the levy on profits from oil and gas from a headline rate of 40% to 75% has become a serious disincentive to investment.

But we’re making great strides in developing green energy.

Last November’s Energy Transition Survey, carried out by ETZ Ltd in partnership with Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and KPMG, found increasing levels of confidence that the Aberdeen region will become a globally recognised renewable energy hub.

As a result of the ScotWind and Intog (Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas) leasing rounds, 17 gigawatts (GW) of agreed floating wind projects will be sited within 100 nautical miles of Aberdeen, accounting for 73% of such projects in Scottish waters.

Planned floating wind projects off Scotland’s coast represent almost one-third of the global floating wind pipeline.

This is world-leading innovation. The same applies to other green energy projects in the north-east.

Port of Aberdeen is described by its chief executive, Bob Sanguinetti, as “a case

study of energy transition in action”. A dredging project at South Harbour will optimise service to the floating offshore wind industry.

Meanwhile, the UK Government’s decision to support the Acorn carbon capture utilisation and storage project at St Fergus offers the prospect of a CO2 transportation and storage system on the Buchan coast.

This would pave the way for repurposing legacy oil and gas infrastructure to transport captured industrial CO2 emissions to storage facilities 1.5 miles under the sea.

Storegga, lead developer of Acorn, told the Commons Scottish

affairs committee it hopes the first Acorn hydrogen plant, transforming natural gas to cleanburning hydrogen, can be online by 2027.

The Kintore Hydrogen project, designed to convert surplus electricity generated offshore into hydrogen for transportation across the country to areas of energy need, is expected to be 500 megawatts operational by 2028, and 3GW operational from 2030.

And the Offshore Renewable Energy (Ore) Catapult’s £300 million partnership with Vattenfall has secured an extension of operations at its 11-turbine wind farm off Aberdeen until the end of 2026.

It gives wind energy suppliers access to facilities to test and demonstrate turbines in real-world conditions.

The north-east’s greatest asset in delivering a just transition is its concentration of energy skills.

There’s no shortage of academic backup. In 2021, for example, Aberdeen University led the field by introducing the UK’s first postgraduate degree in energy transition systems and technologies.

Also this year, construction work in the grounds of James Hutton Institute’s campus at Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, will create a Just Transition Hub.

North-east entrepreneurs have been quick to embrace opportunities. At the end of last year ETZ awarded funding totalling £2.56m to 14 north-east firms.

And in the last Net Zero Energy Transition Awards, Aberdeenbased engineering firm Balmoral won the green business growth accolade, with SSEN Transmission and Ore Catapult also featured.

Energy transition offers entrepreneurs as many opportunities as did the oil boom of the 1970s.

North-east businesses are embracing them.

The Kintore Hydrogen project is expected to be 500 megawatts operational by 2028 and 3GW from 2030.