THE First Minister has called on the Westminster Government to act now to increase the budget for offshore wind farms.
Nicola Sturgeon’s call came after two Scottish wind farms lost out on funding from a recent Government auction.
The UK Government’s auction saw offshore wind projects competing for a share of £260 million – £155m for projects commissioning from 2016-17 and an additional £105m for schemes commissioning from 2017-18.
Only one Scottish offshore wind farm received a contract. Two other wind farms which had been competing now face an uncertain future.
The First Minister makes an official visit to Europe’s second-largest wind farm, Whitelee in Renfrewshire, today.
Speaking ahead of the visit she said: “Scotland has made huge progress in renewables deployment in Scotland, generating enough renewable energy to meet 44 per cent of Scotland’s annual electricity demand, generating millions of pounds of community benefit, and displacing an estimated 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide across the UK.”
She continued: “The results also show that Scottish onshore wind is now considerably cheaper than new nuclear; thanks to sustained support and large-scale deployment of projects such as Scottish Power’s Whitelee development.
“The UK Government must now show greater ambition for the Scottish offshore sector,” the First Minister continued.
“We are already seeing cost reductions in offshore wind but the scale of growth planned for the sector will be a key driver to delivering further cost reductions for the long-term benefit of consumers.
It is essential that the UK Government provide confidence to the offshore wind industry that sufficient money will be available in future allocation rounds to allow the sector to move forward with assurance and enable costs to be further reduced.
“Without this ambition Scotland risks missing the opportunity to cement the growth of an industry, with significant supply chain benefits, while decarbonising our energy supply.”
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