Scottish Renewables has urged the Scottish government to “resolve the delay” to the ScotWind leasing round and “keep the process on track” ahead of the Scottish Parliament election period, starting 25 March.
The Scottish Government recently halted the upcoming ScotWind offshore wind leasing round, after the recent Crown Estate leasing round in England and Wales resulted in higher-than-expected bids.
The Scottish Cabinet is likely to discuss the issue on 17 March, said Scottish Renewables, which urged the government to “resolve the delay” to keep the process on track and ensure industry has “the certainty it needs to sign off investment plans” ahead of the Scottish Parliament election period, starting 25 March.
Failure to do so would risk setting in motion a “domino effect of damaging consequences”, Scottish Renewables claimed.
Scottish Renewables chief executive Claire Mack (pictured) said: “Ministers should be in no doubt about the impact of the decisions they will make.
“There is global interest in Scotland’s burgeoning green economy so let’s capture, not damage, that confidence in our country as a place to invest.
“Industry has endured delay after delay in the past decade, a situation which has left Scotland’s offshore wind sector trailing the rest of the UK.
“Further delay now would be disastrous and would risk setting off a domino effect of damaging consequences.
“Scottish Renewables members have already invested thousands of hours and millions of pounds over many years putting together bids which represent billions of pounds worth of investment.
“Continued uncertainty would prevent them from playing their full role in supporting the Scottish Government’s ambitions for a green recovery and contributing towards our net zero target.
“If offshore wind developers cannot build their projects then the economic and environmental benefits they deliver will not materialise.”
Scottish Renewables said it is urging the Scottish Government to ensure that the review of ScotWind, which was triggered when a recent leasing round in England and Wales resulted in higher than anticipated prices, is a “short, focused process” which concludes ahead of the pre-election purdah period on 25 March.
ScotWind Leasing could enable up to 10GW of offshore projects to go forward, more than doubling the pipeline of offshore wind projects in Scottish waters.
Launching the process in June 2020 Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the projects it will enable would “help us drive forward Scotland’s green recovery and our transition to becoming a net-zero society by 2045.”