Crown Estate Scotland’s current Director of Marine will helm a new Scottish Renewables team focused on the offshore wind sector.
The four-strong team – to be led by Colin Palmer, currently working at the Scottish public body responsible for seabed leasing – will focus on enabling and accelerating development of offshore wind farms in Scotland’s seas.
The new team will also be responsible for supporting Scottish Renewables’ role in co-ordinating the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) Barriers to Deployment group.
Issues facing the offshore wind sector include the way in which projects will be consented and how power from new offshore wind farms will be used, including for green hydrogen production, and access to the electricity network.
The move comes as Scottish Renewables’ membership continues to grow with more and more businesses moving from oil and gas to renewables and the organisation’s relocation to larger, sustainable offices in Glasgow city centre earlier this year.
Claire Mack, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “The renewable energy industry has never had such an abundance of projects like this before and I’m determined that we should have the capacity to represent our members as they begin to build out tens of billions of pounds worth of offshore wind in Scotland’s seas.
“Scottish Renewables’ members are involved at every stage of offshore wind development, from the legal firms who deal with contracting to the supply chain companies who work on every aspect of these gigantic projects, and of course the developers who bring them together.
“With the largest floating offshore wind pipeline in the world, as well as multiple gigawatts of fixed-bottom offshore wind in development, and by taking advantage of its unrivalled wind resource, Scotland has a genuine opportunity to be a global leader in this area.”