Chamber and committees

There are a couple of areas that we can point to where moving parts are starting to come together to create the opportunity for manufacturing. I mentioned Sumitomo, but we also have Haventus in Ardersier, which involves 3,000 jobs. To wind this out beyond offshore wind, I note that former industrial areas in Scotland are being repurposed in order to have manufacturing capacity on those industrial sites. For example, tomorrow, I will go to Hunterston, where there is a lot of activity in that space.

What is critical is investment—not just from private investors, but through the work that has been done by enterprise agencies to scale up what is happening at our ports. There has been investment in ports and harbours across Scotland, particularly on the north and east coasts, but not just there—ports in the north-west of Scotland are also seeing a great deal of investment. Work is also being done in the energy transition zone in Aberdeen, which is sited in the same geographical area as the new port in Aberdeen.

Clusters are coming together to attract inward investment and private investment and are getting support from our agencies to provide sites for manufacturing. The clusters of activity that are associated with ports and harbours will be very important for deployment of offshore wind and will be key sites for manufacturing.

A great deal of emphasis has been put on the ports and harbours infrastructure that is being developed across the whole of Scotland. The green free ports have been announced—I think that Michael Matheson might have been the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport when that announcement was made—in order to prompt investment into those areas, as well. Last year, the green industrial strategy was launched, which sets out that offshore wind is a key area of investment and support from the Government and our enterprise agencies.

This is about creating an investable proposition, and the ports and harbours will be absolutely critical to that. That is not only for the deployment of industry within Scotland but, as you rightly say, for deployment of ports’ capacities to export the various materials that we could be manufacturing in Scotland to the rest of Europe, as countries there look to take on the technologies that we are developing in Scotland.

Another added benefit is the long-term legacy for ports and harbours. I will give a particular example. I was at Eyemouth, which is a traditional fishing town that is now a launch pad for crews going to service offshore wind. As a result of the investment there, that relatively small harbour is doing lots of things, and is still working with the fishing sector. So, there is a long-term legacy benefit. I will stop there, convener.

There has been no decision by the UK Government to match our funding. It would be great if it did provide match funding—what a difference we could make if that funding doubled! My point is on the record now, and you and others have said on the record many times that you would like to see that happen.

We are working towards completing the analysis in March. Such analysis is important for a fund like that that has so many different parts to it. You are right to point to the participatory budgeting side. In Aberdeenshire, that involved Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action, Third Sector Interface Moray and the Aberdeen City third sector interface.

Yes, we are. I can write to the committee about what the increase in capacity in the energy consents unit has meant. It is something that the First Minister and I have taken a keen interest in. Moreover, we want to help with consenting not only for offshore wind, but for all projects. We want to help local government, for example, to access the expertise that it needs. We have talked about the length of time that consents take for onshore wind or other onshore infrastructure, and about the capacity of some of our local authorities. Ivan McKee and I are working on a national planning hub, so that the specific expertise that is required, particularly for things such as environmental impact assessments, can be accessed. A lack in that respect was also slowing progress.

I do not know whether I have the figure for what has already been spent, but I will tell you about the in-year allocations and the allocations in the budget for hydrogen funding.

We launched £7 million in-year funding for grants to support strategically important green hydrogen projects. I think that 14 applications for that were submitted in December, and they are now being looked at. Our delivery partner in that is Scottish Enterprise. That money builds on £7 million for the hydrogen innovation scheme, which supported 31 projects. We are still involved in an analysis of what that has achieved. We also gave £6 million from the just transition fund to HydroGlen, which is the green hydrogen farming pilot that I am sure the committee is aware of. Further, £15 million has gone to the green hydrogen hub in Aberdeen. Also, some of that money—around £3.1 million—has gone to the Storrega green hydrogen project in Speyside, which I am sure that people have heard me talk about. It is working to decarbonise whisky distilling, but is also working with the local authority to potentially provide green hydrogen for fleets of vehicles, in the way that Aberdeen City Council has done.

Right—I am sorry.

I do not have that figure in front of me. Obviously, it will be a long-term projection. We can look into that and write to the committee. It is a matter of public record: I just do not have the figure in front of me, and I would not like to give you the wrong one.

Absolutely not. There is £100 million, but that will not all be allocated in one financial year—it will be spread across a number of years in the same way as we are spreading the £500 million for the supply chain across a number of years. There is not yet £100 million-worth of activity and projects to fund, so we have to look at what funding is needed. That is why we have taken the approach of having Scottish Enterprise as our delivery partner. It speaks every day to companies that require funding, and we are working with it so that the funding is focused and achieves value. We are taking the approach of working with the sector to fill the gaps so that there is commercial realisation of innovation projects, for example, as we did with the hydrogen innovation scheme. The sector is looking for that approach from us, and that is what we are delivering.

I think that what I have set out totals quite a lot more than £10 million. A substantial amount of money has already been spent on hydrogen, but if the committee wants me to give a running total of the money that has been invested in green hydrogen, I can do so.

That £100 million fund was not for one financial year—it was over a number of years.

The offshore wind, hydrogen and green industrial strategies have been published, and our policy on renewables is already widely known. At the moment, I am finessing the energy strategy in the light of some developments that have happened in the UK, particularly in the Supreme Court. It is very important that we are alive to those developments. The First Minister made that point last week. It is important that our energy strategy takes into account the UK Government’s work on reserved issues, so that our energy strategy dovetails with that.

No, it is not difficult to prioritise putting money into the energy areas that we know need Government support, and I think that the budget does that very well.