Scotland’s offshore wind industry is set for a “remarkable decade” as capacity scales up to meet net-zero targets, delegates at Scottish Renewables’ annual offshore wind conference have heard.
In her opening remarks to the virtual conference, the industry body’s chief executive Claire Mack said: “The next decade is going to be remarkable.
“Having seen what this industry has done already and the records we have broken, I can’t even predict what our successes are going to be in the future.”
The country’s offshore developers are set for a big year, with the ScotWind leasing application process due to close on 16 June.
Mack said she was pleased with Crown Estate Scotland’s recent review of ScotWind earlier this year, commenting that a “sensible conclusion” had been reached which “supports the development sector and supply chain actors”.
But the speed of the consenting process and high grid connection costs for Scottish offshore projects look set to be key themes of the conference.
Developers say that net-zero requires projects to move from inception to construction far quicker, while the current grid charging regime continues to make Scottish projects more expensive than those in other parts of the UK.