SSE’s ScotWind partnership has also announced that its combined ScotWind projects would enable a £100m fund to directly invest into Scottish supply chain companies
SSE Renewables, alongside Japanese conglomerate Marubeni and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), have announced that up to £15bn could be added to the Scottish economy by their proposed offshore wind projects.
The SSE partnership has also announced that its combined ScotWind projects would enable a £100m fund to directly invest into Scottish supply chain companies to support the development of their projects.
This funding would support the overall ambition of the partnership to achieve spending of around 50% with Scottish suppliers in the projects over their lifetime.
The supply chain fund is aimed at supporting Scottish businesses to enter the offshore wind sector, alongside encouraging the existing supply chain to establish new facilities in Scotland and upgrading Scottish port facilities to accommodate future offshore wind deployment.
Hisafumi Manabe, chief executive of Marubeni Offshore Wind Development Corporation, said: We’ve been working closely with a number of existing offshore wind supply chain companies, including those in Asia, to explore the potential to establish new facilities in Scotland, creating local job opportunities, and economic benefits for those communities.
The fund will be used to support the supply chain needs of each of our ScotWind projects, and its impact will be further enhanced by considering areas which offer a high potential for the export of services and products worldwide, he said.
Michael Hannibal, partner at CIP, said: Our partnership is fully committed to the UK and Scotland’s future supply chain and the green recovery and that is why £500,000 of this proposed fund has already been earmarked to help 16 to 24 year-olds enter the industry and help the supply chain bounce back from the pandemic.
This announcement exemplifies the benefit of our consortiums’ local knowledge and global expertise which gives us the credibility and capability to deliver for Scotland, he said.
Details regarding deployment and management of the supply chain fund will be set out by the SSE Renewables-Marubeni-CIP consortium following the conclusion of the Crown Estate Scotland leasing process.
Perth-headquartered SSE Renewables’ portfolio already includes the 1.1GW Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm in the Firth of Forth, which will be Scotland’s largest fixed-bottom offshore wind farm when complete in 2023.
