Scottish Renewables chief executive Claire Mack hailed the success of onshore wind in the country today in Edinburgh, ahead of the signing of a joint industry-government sector deal for the technology.
“It’s going to be a momentous day,” the trade group boss said.
“Onshore wind is the backbone of our renewables generation and economic contribution, and is Scotland’s single biggest renewables technology making up two-thirds of our installed capacity.
“It supports more than ten thousand jobs and turbines on our landscape have become an iconic hallmark of our action on climate change and something to be incredibly proud of.”
An onshore wind sector deal, tabled by Scotland’s Onshore Wind Policy Statement late last year, will support the government’s aim of delivering at least 20GW of onshore wind capacity by 2030.
At the Scottish Renewables and RenewableUK onshore wind conference today, Mack noted the sector deal approach has already “proven very helpful” is accelerating the offshore wind industry.
“It is fantastic to have the focused timetable and targeted approach.
“There have been challenges around people and skills, because it needs associated policies to support delivery.
“We need alignment of government and industrial resources to understand the critical success factors to meeting the ambitions we have.”
Government support for onshore wind in Scotland is in contrast to the policy approach south of the border in England, where policy remains restrictive of new development, she added.
The onshore wind sector deal “typifies the Scottish advantage”, showing there is a much more “open environment” to deployment.
Even with recent policy tweaks in England, “it’s still massively uncertain to deploy and develop down south, and not enough to secure the investment”, Mack said.