Offshore Wind Focus

Ministerial foreword

Offshore wind is a once in a generation economic opportunity for Scotland.

Our abundant natural resources, world leading subsea engineering capabilities, and strong heritage and skills base in North Sea oil and gas production provide a perfect platform to deliver and sustain a thriving offshore wind economy in Scotland. The benefits from the offshore wind revolution will have a profound and long-lasting positive impact for our communities, our young people and our economy.

The outcome of the ScotWind leasing round in 2022 gave Scotland a significant first mover advantage for the development of floating offshore wind technologies and supply chain. Our current pipeline of around 40GW of offshore wind capacity, on top of the 3GW currently installed in Scottish waters^[1], will be transformational for our energy sector and our economic future.

Last year, we announced our commitment to invest up to £500 million into the offshore wind supply chain and critical infrastructure over five years. This strategic approach will catalyse private investment in the critical infrastructure and manufacturing facilities essential to grow Scotland's supply chain. The ripple effect will extend far beyond monetary gains – it will help foster a highly productive and competitive economy that supports thousands of jobs and a sustainable supply chain that benefits all of Scotland.

Over the past year we have worked closely with our public sector delivery partners to develop a strategic approach to investment, to coordinate and drive public sector investment to support the growth of the Scottish offshore wind sector and maximise the benefits for our supply chain, our workforce and our local, regional and national economies.

Recent UK Government announcements on the importance of floating wind in its priorities for GB Energy investment are welcome, as are the plans for the National Wealth Fund which has significant potential to drive investment in support of Scotland's offshore wind sector and supply chain. We will continue to work collaboratively with the UK Government to ensure the right levels of investment are targeted at our world-leading ports facilities which will be critical to the development of our offshore wind sector.

Our approach has been informed by a strategic assessment of market opportunities and has identified potential early mover projects and areas for public sector funding support that will unlock significant private sector investment. This paper provides an overview of this work and the outcome of the strategic assessment that will underpin the public sector's collective investment decisions, supporting delivery of our Green Industrial Strategy.

Crucially, this document sets out the next steps we need to take to support the creation and promotion of investment opportunities for the sector and foster further collaboration with industry, and the UK Government and its agencies, to unlock investment at a scale and pace which is transformational for Scotland's net zero ambition, citizens, communities, environment and economy.

Gillian Martin MSP, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy