Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 12 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to research suggesting that Scotland’s marine energy sector could generate over £8 billion for Scotland’s economy, creating over 60,000 jobs, by 2050, and what it is doing to support the sector to deliver this.
The successful commercialisation of the marine energy sector in Scotland certainly has the potential to grow our economy. While the research referenced shows promising projections for the marine energy sector, the realisation of these projections is reliant on significant technological advances being made in very short order.
To get to commercialisation, the sector will need to demonstrate sufficient technical maturity at utility scale and cost competitiveness with other marine energy technologies. The main levers for enabling the commercialisation of emerging, pre-commercial technologies lie with the UK Government (e.g. Contracts for Difference) and bodies such as GB Energy whose remit includes providing market confidence in nascent and growth clean energy sectors.
We will continue to make representations to the UK Government, encouraging them to provide sufficient support for the development of the sector, including through the UK industry-led Marine Energy Taskforce.