Development in Renewables industry, sum awarded by contract and category: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the total sum awarded to (a) Scottish (b) other UK and (c) other EU firms, by the Scottish Government, for development in the renewable industry, broken down by the number of contracts in each respective category, in each of the past 10 years.
Additionally, you have clarified the following:

• Regarding the term ‘firm’, I would be grateful if you could provide me with information about all companies that the Scottish Government have contracted with.
• Regarding the term ‘contract’, I would be grateful if you could include anyone that the Scottish Government has paid or given money to.
• The request relates to both (a) monies paid out in the form of grants, loans, etc. to third parties; and (b) monies paid out to contractors engaged by the Scottish Government to carry out work on our behalf.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.  In this instance, the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested (including information prior to 2013) would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. The reason for this is that to locate and retrieve that information we would need to conduct a search of all of the records of the Scottish Government. It may help if I explain that we file our information according to the subject matter, not by reference to companies to whom we have awarded funding to support renewables activity. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.  You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

Additionally, you may find the following, previously answered Freedom of Information requests to be of interest:

• FOI/15/00737 – “A breakdown of all money distributed to individuals projects through the Climate Challenge Fund and Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme”.
• FOI/14/01734 – “List of Scottish-based companies involved in the renewable energy sector that have benefited from Scottish Government subsidies, grants or other financial assistance in the last 10 years. For each company, include details of the award was granted and why”.

 

General Qualifications:
1. Please note, figures contained within the below tables may have been influenced by both changes to and the closure of various UK Government subsidy schemes:

• The 2015 Feed-in Tariffs Scheme (FITS) Review resulted in caps on the capacity supports by FITS, changes to tariff levels (mostly reductions), adjustments to the degression mechanism, and a number of other changes. 
• The scheme was then closed to new applicants on 31 March 2019. 
• The Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme, which supported large-scale renewable electricity projects, closed to new generating capacity on 31 March 2017.

 

Table 1 - Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES):

Year	Total sum awarded      to Scottish      companies	No. of contracts	Total sum awarded to UK companies	No. of contracts
2018	£1,409,987	60	£904,145	1
2017	£867,767	42	£1,182,812	1
2016	£8,498,321	56	£792,696	1
2015	£18,408,809	104	£980,754	1
2014	£3,043,402	86	£909,791	1
2013	£3,114,286	58	£624,498	1

Table 1 – Qualifications:
1. “Total sum awarded to Scottish companies” encompasses grants and loans awarded to all eligible organisations as per the following guidance: https://www.localenergy.scot/media/110477/eligibility-table-2019.pdf.
2. This contract is delivered on behalf of the Scottish Government by Local Energy Scotland, which is a consortium of social enterprises, led by the Energy Saving Trust.  As such, their management fee is included under “Total sum awarded to UK companies”.

3. The above figures include the CARES Local Energy Challenge Fund (LECF), a 2 year programme, launched in August 2014 – hence the increase in support throughout 2015/16 and 2016/17. The purpose of this fund was to support large-scale renewable energy demonstrator projects across Scotland. The funding awards for LECF were issued throughout 2015/16 and 2016/17, and this is reflected within Table 1. The LECF scheme was replaced by the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), which is contained within Table 2 overleaf.

 

Table 2 - Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP):

Year	Total sum awarded             to Scottish            companies	No. of contracts	Total sum awarded to UK companies	No. of contracts
2017	£6,388,662	4	£4,564,662	1
2016	£177,000	1	-	-

Table 2 – Qualifications:

1. The LCITP Transformational Demonstrator Funding Invitation launched in July 2016, seeking applications for capital support from large scale infrastructure projects in Scotland. The grant awards were issued in March 2017, which is reflected in the value of support recorded for this year.

 

Table 3.1 – Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF):

Year	Total sum awarded to companies
2015	£10,893,000

 

Table 3.2 – Wave Energy Scotland (WES) Programme:

Year	Total sum awarded to companies
2018	£10,000,000
2017	£10,500,000
2016	£10,000,000
2015	£7,200,000
2014	£1,250,000

 

Table 3.1/ 3.2 – Qualifications:

1. The figures provided for wave and tidal energy relate to the total sums awarded under the ongoing WES programme, which is administered by Wave Energy Scotland Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise), and the MRCF, which was administered by the Carbon Trust between 2013 and 2016, and for which a final offer of grant was provided in May 2015.
2. Funding provided by the Scottish Government for programmes supporting the development of wave and tidal energy have reflected and continue to reflect the needs of these sectors. In the case of Wave Energy Scotland, funding is aligned with a Business Plan which sets out how proposed actions and initiatives will help to achieve the Scottish Government’s strategic objectives for the wave energy sector.

3. The breakdown of awards (i.e. number of contracts) made under each programme is not available in the format requested – nor is information on whether the final recipients where Scottish, other UK or EU companies.
4. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have all of the information you have requested.  However, you may wish to contact Highlands and Islands Enterprise at customer.service@hient.co.uk,who may be able to help you.

 

Table 4 – SME Loan Fund:

Year	Total sum  awarded	No. of contracts	Total sum awarded to UK companies	No. of contracts
2018	£221,206	18	£8,541	1
2017	£79,231	12	£11,621	1
2016	£16,725	7	£8,858	1
2015	£1,365,424	28	£26,916

 

Table 4- Qualifications:
1. This contract is delivered on behalf of the Scottish Government by the Energy Saving Trust (EST). As such, their management fee is included under “Total sum awarded to UK companies”.
2. However, the costs provided for renewable energy technologies here are an estimate - as the contract with EST for the delivery of the SME Loan Fund encompasses both renewable developments and energy efficiency measures.
3. Information regarding whether the company is Scottish, other UK or other EU is not sought or held as part of the application process. Therefore, total the number of contracts (i.e. loans) issued per annum has been provided.

 

Table 5.1 - Energy Investment Fund (EIF):

Year	Total sum awarded to Scottish companies	No. of contracts
2018	£2,396,095	5

 

Table 5.2 - Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF):

Year	Total sum awarded to companies
2017	£10,183,880
2016	£7,877,135
2015	£9,714,425
2014	£32,403,990
2013	£8,769,622
2012	£1,372,000

 

Table 5.1/ 5.2 – Qualifications:
1. These programmes are both administered on behalf of the Scottish Government by Scottish Enterprise – therefore, while our aim is to provide information whenever possible, with regards to Table 3.2 in particular, the Scottish Government does not have all of the information you have requested. However, you may wish to contact Scottish Enterprise at pressoffice@scotent.co.uk, who may be able to help you.

 

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