The Scottish Government will decide in the next few weeks whether a series of offshore wind projects proposed for the Moray Firth can go ahead, energy minister Fergus Ewing has revealed.
Marine Scotland is currently finalising its recommendations for the offshore wind schemes, with decisions due on whether or not to give the projects the green light in the next few weeks.
“It’s absolutely essential that each case is considered strictly on its own merits,” said Mr Ewing at the Offshore Wind and Supply Chain Conference in Aberdeen.
The minister also revealed the government is set to publish draft regional guidance for offshore demonstrator projects, to give developers a “head start” in being able to trial technologies ahead of full-scale commercial project roll out.
Watch the Energy Minister discuss plans for how Electricity Market Reform would work in an independent Scotland below
“We are absolutely committed to the development in Scotland of an offshore wind industry,” said Mr Ewing.
“We have enough marine energy in Scotland to supply our own needs twenty times over and we believe the small additional costs necessary [to develop the technology] are necessary and that they will lead to more secure and affordable supplies of power over time.”
Watch Mr Ewing give his keynote speech below
Ewing said that an independent Scotland would have the freedom of focusing its energy policy where the country’s biggest potential actually lay, with a new policy for electricity market reform possible as the current scheme has proved controversial.
“My immediate thought is to get best results under the existing system,” he admitted.
“We have said that we favour the continuance of an electricity market that operates across the UK. But within that there is a potential for an independent Scottish government to decide its own mechanisms for subsidising renewables.”
Ewing said the subsidy for renewables was ‘not modest but by no means substantial’ when compared to the £35billion planned for the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Somerset
“We in the Scottish Government believe that the UK offshore wind ambitions are still pitched too low and without a clear and ring-fenced commitment and budget to support the delivery of meaningful capacity, the supply chain and the levels of inward investment that we want to see across Scotland will be at risk,” the minister said.
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