Question reference: S6W-03560
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 6 October 2021
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 3 November 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the debate on motion S6M-01293 (A Net Zero Nation) on 21 September 2021, whether it will provide a substantive response to the comments raised regarding whether it will commit to having a fit-for-purpose industrial strategy for the development of a vertically-integrated renewable energy manufacturing supply chain.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ending our contribution to climate change within a generation. Our Programme for Government sets out our aim to generate 50% of Scotland’s overall energy consumption from renewable sources, and to have decarbonised our energy system almost completely by 2050.
Our vision and roadmap for the energy sector includes a Just Transition Plan for Energy at the heart of our refreshed Energy Strategy, publishing as one coherent document in spring 2022.
On our ambitions for offshore wind, we were clear in our policy statement published in 2020, that we have an ambition of up to 11GW of offshore wind by 2030. ScotWind bids are currently being assessed by Crown Estate Scotland with results of successful bidders known in early 2022 but this will provide us with a strong pipeline of projects. From that we want to ensure that economic benefits and supply chain opportunities are seized upon in Scotland.
This is why in August, the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC) published its Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) for Offshore Wind. The report has five main recommendations which are directed at both the sector and government, and the primary recommendation focusses on bringing the manufacturing of floating offshore wind platforms to Scotland through creation of a Scottish Floating Offshore Wind Port Cluster, with ports acting in partnership to provide the required infrastructure area and capability needed to attract manufacturers to use Scottish ports and invest in Scotland.
I look forward to SOWEC taking forward next steps on the recommendations set out in the report.