Scotland's Marine Economic Statistics 2020

Offshore wind

Marine Scotland has been investigating how to measure offshore wind farm economic activity. This is under development, so it is not included in the marine economy figures. Employment and turnover estimates for offshore wind come from the Office for National Statistic's Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy Survey. This collects economic information on Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sectors, including offshore wind. The accuracy of these estimates varies by sectors and country. This limits the use of the data for some small sectors and at a Scotland level. More information on this, including confidence intervals, can be found in the Low carbon and renewable energy economy, UK: 2020 bulletin.

Unfortunately, we are still unable to calculate GVA estimates. But, we have estimated employment headcounts from the full time equivalent estimates. The annual population survey was used to work out the proportion of full time workers in Scotland. The annual survey of hours and earnings was used to estimate the average hours worked by full and part time staff.

Scottish offshore wind directly employed an estimated 2,800 people in 2020. It generated 3,492GWh of electricity, 11% of all renewable energy generation in Scotland. Scottish offshore wind had an estimated turnover of £617 million in 2020, 0.3% of overall Scottish turnover.

From 2019 to 2020, the Scottish offshore wind farm turnover decreased by 3%. But, between 2014 to 2020, the turnover increased by 466%.

The estimated number of people employed increased by 210% between 2014 and 2020. This increase is not statistically significant and could be due to sampling variability rather than a real change. See Annex for more information.