SSE has set out plans to invest up to £40bn in the next decade, including ramping up its deployment of renewable energy, and the network infrastructure to connect and transport it around the UK.
It also plans to invest in flexible power sources to back up energy supplies when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
In doing so, it will be creating more than 1,000 new green jobs every year, SSE said.
The plan comes as SSE publishes its financial results for full-year 2022/23, reporting a record investment of £2.8bn for the year – over 50% more than its £1.8bn adjusted profit after tax in the same period – as the company builds out critical energy projects including the world’s largest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank.
Having experienced exceptionally still and dry weather in the prior year, renewables volumes increased in the current year, SSE said, but were still around 13% behind planned levels due to less favourable weather than the long-term average and project delays.
SSE’s renewables division reported an adjusted operating profit for the year ending March 2023 of £580m, compared with £568.1m the previous year.
Strong financial performance, combined with increasing visibility over its pipeline of investment opportunities over the coming decade, has enabled SSE to update its previous capital expenditure plans, with the fully funded element of the plan increasing by more than 40% to £18bn, the board said.
The Group is investing in electricity networks, onshore and offshore wind and solar, as well as developing new power generation and storage technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen, batteries and pumped hydro to back up an increasingly renewables-led energy system.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive of SSE, said: “The results that we have reported today represent profit with a purpose. They enable us to deliver record investment – far in excess of our earnings – in vital low-carbon energy infrastructure.
“They are also testament to the strength of our balanced business mix and net zero-aligned strategy, which sees us investing in the solutions to the energy crisis.
“This is a massive commitment to the UK and, at around £10m every single day, amounts to one of the largest clean energy investment programmes this country has ever seen – helping create and support thousands of new jobs and powering green growth from Shetland to the Isle of Wight.
“It is underpinned by supportive, long-term policy targets as the UK looks to consolidate its position as a world leader in clean energy technologies.
“Meeting these targets will require a massive step up in the pace of delivery on the ground and we are look forward to working with policymakers to make this happen.
“The sooner we can get projects built the quicker we can deliver the cheaper, cleaner and more secure homegrown energy system we all want to see.”