Scotland is committed to the ambitious target of becoming net zero by 2045.
The transition of the Scottish economy to a low carbon model with the decarbonisation of the electricity system is critical to this success. The Scottish energy industry has already developed a first-class reputation with unrivalled engineering skills and world leading know-how. This has been based on innovation and technology developments, but above all the skills of its people with Scottish voices being heard on oil and gas platforms across the globe. These attributes enabled Aberdeen to become a world class centre of excellence, particularly in subsea technology, and it is these skills that need to be utilised in the future to address new challenges and to enable Scotland to become a world leader in renewable energy.
Wind power in Scotland is the fastest-growing renewable energy technology, with 9,347 MW of installed wind power capacity as of June 2020. This included 8,366 MW from onshore wind and 981 MW of offshore wind generators. So why are Scottish companies not benefiting more?
So far, despite good intentions to ensure that local and regional supply chains would benefit from contracts in the renewables sector, contract announcements for the £2 billion Neart Na Gaoithe (NnG) showed only 15% would be placed with the Scottish supply chain. There was a further blow to secure manufacturing orders for Scottish firms when the BiFab yards, failed to win any of the work for the Seagreen array being built off the east of Fife. All of the platforms for its 114 turbines are being manufactured in China and the United Arab Emirates.
World firsts
As far back as 2003, Scotland has been leading the way in renewable energy technology (wind, wave or tidal). The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd in Orkney was the world’s first and leading facility for demonstrating and testing wave and tidal energy converters – technologies that generate electricity by harnessing the power of waves and tidal streams – in the sea for many years.
Pelamis Wave Power tested its first full-scale prototype at EMEC between 2004 and 2007. The machine, which was rated at 750 kW, was the world's first offshore wave power machine to generate electricity into the grid system.
Scotland's first offshore wind turbine was placed near the Beatrice Oil Field, 24 km off the east coast in the Moray Firth in August 2006. This was the world's largest wind turbine at the time, with a maximum output of 5 MW. A second identical turbine joined it and the wind farm began supplying electricity in August 2007. As of February 2010, Beatrice Wind Farm is the deepest and northernmost offshore wind installation in the world.
Open Hydro in 2008 was the first tidal turbine to be grid-connected in Scotland and subsequently the first to successfully generate electricity to the national grid in the UK.
Aquamarine Power world first unique Oyster design (‘an oscillating wave surge converter’) was grid-connected in June 2012 at EMEC’s Orkney test site.
In 2016, Nova Innovation’s offshore tidal array was the first in the world to supply electricity to the grid. And interestingly the company has connected its tidal energy array to battery storage developed by Tesla. The Tesla powerpack is able to store sufficient energy to fill the gap during slack tide, enabling the tidal power station to supply a consistent flow of electricity into the Shetland grid. The result is the world’s first grid-connected ‘baseload’ tidal power station.
The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) off the Aberdeen coast was officially opened by Scotland’s First Minister in 2018, at the time the world’s largest offshore wind turbines capable of producing 70% of Aberdeen’s electricity capacity.
Not all plain sailing
However, despite Scotland’s natural location for renewable energy, it faces several challenges. The first is that despite high winds the seabed around Scotland’s coast is generally too deep for conventional offshore wind turbines. The second is that to deliver a sustainable transition to low carbon will require a fundamental shift in society with joint efforts by entrepreneurs, industry, governments, civil society, legislators and most of all innovators.
There is hope on the horizon. And that is floating wind. Whilst there are fewer than 100MW of floating wind farms currently installed around the world, this is expected to grow exponentially throughout the 2020s. These floating structures and their associated infrastructure share many characteristics with deep sea offshore oil and gas platforms – hence providing the opportunity for Scotland’s current capability. ScotWind is a programme managed by Crown Estate Scotland which will lease areas of the seabed around Scotland for new commercial scale offshore wind projects. It is the first round of seabed leasing for offshore windfarms in Scotland for a decade
Currently the sector has been focussed on R&D and proving the technology can work in harsh environments and whilst valuable the industry needs to move past this stage and start making the transition from pioneering to industrialisation. It is an opportunity to implement at a commercial scale. In 2017, the Hywind Scotland project is the world's first commercial wind farm using floating wind turbines, situated 18 miles off Peterhead, Scotland.
The announcement this month that the UK's largest factory for making steel towers for offshore wind turbines looks set to be built in the Highlands is very promising. The £110m facility has been proposed for Port of Nigg on the Cromarty Firth.
Inverness-headquartered Global Energy Group, which owns the port, and Spanish company Haizea Wind Group are behind the plans. The investment needed would come from a syndicate which includes SSE Renewables, in addition to funding from the Scottish and UK governments. Construction of the facility could start next year, subject to the project successfully securing the finance package needed.
If the Scottish industrial sector can grab this floating wind opportunity and establish its position as an early market leader, then companies at the forefront of floating wind will have a great chance to utilise their skills and experience in Scotland, and export, as the oil and gas subsea sector does so from Aberdeen, good practice around the world. At the heart of this must be prioritising the development of a local supply chain.
So, with the support of major energy companies in partnership with Government, Scotland can capture the huge opportunity building on its unrivalled engineering skills, excellent academia, an entrepreneurial nation, and natural resources to build a world leading position in a new industry that will last for decades.
