The UK government needs to increase its aspiration for offshore wind as a competitive form of large-scale renewable power generation, according to SSE chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies.
With the news that Hitachi has pulled out of the Wylfa project, the new nuclear programme looks in real trouble and was due to come in well above the costs of offshore wind anyway, he said.
“It is time to raise our ambition with offshore wind. We should be aiming to build as many offshore wind projects as needed to help deliver decarbonisation targets in power, heat and transport, rather than going down the route of Government’s recently imposed cap on low carbon contracts regardless of how competitively projects can bid.
“We have a technology that brings cheap, low carbon electricity,” the utility’s chief added.
The SSE boss believes the North Sea as a “perfect deployment area” for offshore wind, with good wind speeds, over such a large area, providing the basis for large-scale deployment that will contribute to energy security.
Phillips-Davies pointed to the high levels of public support for offshore wind as well as the jobs and opportunities from development and operations happening in communities that really need them.
He said: “It is time to aim higher and seize the opportunity that offshore wind brings.
“Nuclear has a role to play but even with substantial government support on offer, I doubt its ability to deliver cost effectively in the 2020s.
“With onshore wind unfortunately unpopular with this Government that means offshore wind will need to do even more of the ‘heavy lifting’ to keep us on track with our climate change commitments.”
He described offshore wind as an ‘off the shelf’ answer to the problem of how the UK can decarbonise energy cost effectively whilst securing new jobs and growth for the UK economy.
“Later this year our Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm, the largest project in Scotland will be completed, and fully exporting low carbon electricity to the grid.
“It is one of many projects delivered to time and budget, which have helped bring the costs down substantially.”
In 2018 Energy Minister Claire Perry set out an ambition of an additional 1-2GWs of offshore wind per year during the 2020s taking the UK to a total of between 20GW and 30GW, meaning it could be the generation technology with the largest installed capacity in the UK.
“The sector has responded, and an Offshore Wind Sector Deal will be finalised later this year setting out the industry’s substantial commitments to the Industrial Strategy,” added Phillips-Davies.
“The question now is whether 30GW by 2030 is ambitious enough,” he said.
In the coming months, the Government will receive advice from the Committee on Climate Change on the implications of increasing its decarbonisation target from an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 to ‘net zero’.
In light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2018, SSE supports the adoption of a net zero target, and the implications will be a need to go faster and harder on decarbonising electricity as the driver for decarbonising heat and transport.