Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, published in December 2024; what its position is on what the plan means for Scotland’s offshore wind industry, and how much of the UK Government’s plan for 43-50 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 will be in Scotland.
Scotland’s strong pipeline of renewables projects and growing supply chain will be vital to achieving a secure, affordable and clean power system, and we welcome the measures in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan to make progress towards this.
In particular, we welcome the signal the Action Plan provides on support for renewable energy – such as actions to speed up grid connections for key projects, and proposed improvements to Contracts for Difference support for renewables developments.
We expect significant growth of Scotland’s offshore wind capacity to play a key role in achieving clean power by 2030. In 2020, the Scottish Government set an ambition for 8-11 GW offshore wind by 2030, which is being reviewed in light of the significant ambition demonstrated by the private sector in the ScotWind and INTOG leasing rounds, with an updated Offshore Wind Policy Statement due to be published in 2025-2026. We continue to work with the UK government, National Energy System Operator, and Ofgem to ensure Scottish offshore wind projects are developed at pace and support our plans for a just transition.