Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas coming to Scotland, says energy minister

Vestas, the wind turbine manufacturing giant, is coming to the Port of Leith according to Scotland’s energy minister.

Gillian Martin made the comments during a live podcast recording in Aberdeen to an audience of 300 people on Tuesday evening.

Vestas (CPH: VWS) has been honing in on Scotland for a new factory.

Queried by an audience member about a lack of domestic manufacturing for Scotland’s energy transition industries, Gillian Martin discussed investment coming in, and pointed to the Danish wind giant heading to the Central Belt.

She said: “Things are happening all the time. Would it be better to have lots of manufacturing here? Yes, and we’re going to have…Vestas are going to come to the Port of Leith with Sumitomo.

“It’s all really starting to happen very, very quickly.”

© AGCC

In response to the comments, a Vestas spokesperson said: “The UK’s wind sector has strong potential and is an important market for Vestas.

“We continuously assess and adjust our manufacturing footprint to meet the demand we foresee. Scotland is being actively considered as a location for new manufacturing capacity.”

The Copenhagen-headquartered firm said in November it was considering a new facility in the UK which could employ around 1,000 people.

However, CEO Henrik Andersen said it depends on long-term demand signals from the UK Government.

Mr Andersen also said in November that “the North Sea is probably the most attractive area in the world for offshore wind”.

In Scotland alone, a whopping 28 gigawatts of capacity projects are in the pipeline thanks to the vast ScotWind offshore leasing round.

That capacity can’t all be used domestically, and some of the energy will be converted into hydrogen and shipped to Europe, Ms Martin said in her answer.

She was speaking at the Chester Hotel in Aberdeen while recording the Holyrood Sources podcast in an event partnered with the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC).

Concerns around a lack of domestic manufacturing companies to build the components for Scotland’s wind farms remain, given its track record.

Many of the country’s fixed-bottom wind farms, such as Moray West finalising construction this year, have had their major components fabricated overseas in areas like the UAE and China.

Asked about manufacturing, Ms Martin discussed export green hydrogen to Germany as part of Scotland’s energy transition efforts.

Earlier, she also discussed Sumitomo’s decision to have a £350m cable factory at the Port of Nigg.

“We’re trying to attract companies to come to Scotland and manufacture here, the Sumitomo decision that was made, which is going to be a cabling factory as well.”