Scotland’s Minster for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, Jim Mather, insists that real momentum is gathering within the renewables/sustainable energy sector north of the border.
On the sidelines of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, he told Energy’s editor: “In Government, we’re very clear about what we’re doing; we have an agenda that’s about playing to our comparative advantage, and that is skewed towards renewables, clean coal and the hydro legacy”
Mather told me that the Scottish Government has been successful in terms of galvanising the different interests … developers, energy companies, academia, National Grid, Ofgem, Crown Estates and that the efforts are beginning to yield real dividends.
He and I agreed that what’s particularly interesting is the attention we’re now getting from Europe. We’re on their radar and there is growing understanding of Scotland’s potential to contribute to overall climate change and renewables targets.
That includes recognition of Aberdeen, which I consider to be of crucial importance. And as many Energy readers know, I’ve a vested interest in ensuring a role for the city.
In that regard, Mather said that he and First Minster Alex Salmond have been very successful in getting through to the commissioner responsible for energy, Andreas Piebalgs. That’s really important.
I was told that Piebalgs has been very open to Scottish overtures and that Mather & Co had got down to a practical level dealing with George Adamowitsch, the European grid co-ordinator. Of course, with European elections coming up, there are going to be changes in terms of MEPs and who the new commissioners will be, though Adamowitsch will be a continuity figure, which is a relief.
Mathers told me: “We’ve had him across here in Scotland; he understands Scotland’s significance, which I think was news to him, and the need for Scotland to be plugged into any material European grid that’s going to contribute green power towards renewables and climate-change targets.”
One result of that dialogue is that Scotland has wriggled its way on to Adamowitsch’s working party looking at the development of European grid and, of course there is the promise of some 40million euros to the Aberdeen wind project.
Coming closer to home, Mather says he is looking forward to seeing the Scottish European Green Energy Centre open in Aberdeen, and to the Energy Technology Partnership working to create cohesion across academic institutions; and I agree with him that the Crown Estate’s offshore Scotland windfarm awards round is seen as particularly significant.
Mather seems comfortable that a meaningful renewable energies engineering and manufacturing capability will grow in Scotland and that there really is a joined-up approach to achieving the next energy future. I hopes so, but I’m nowhere near as comfortable as he is with regard to building a credible engineering and manufacturing capability.
He pointed to the IT revolution, where one now has more computing power in one’s pocket than the Bank of Scotland had in 1972.
“At that time, we probably had about 28 mainframes in Scotland, none of which were talking to each other and very few of which had remote terminals,” he told me.
“Now we have that technology in the pocket and linked to everything on the planet.
“If you look at the metaphor … we’re doing so much more. We’re planning, there’s a commercial imperative, an understanding of the need for energy where there wasn’t an understanding of the need for data-processing back the early-1970s; and we have established players moving in a common direction to try to achieve the potential here in Scotland.
“I think the issue here is that what we have are the right seeds in place, with the right alignments, too.
“One of the things that many people don’t know is that we have reallocated the civil service head count to make sure we have double the resource in my energy team than before.
“There were previously 30, but there are now 60, organised in two separate divisions … one looking after established energy and the other looking after renewables and talking to the industry comprehensively.”
I have to confess that, while I knew there had been some reallocation of roles, I hadn’t realised the extent of the changes.
Mather says he has great faith that conversation and dialogue will opportunities coming forward.
I hope for Scotland’s sake that he is right.
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