Question reference: S6W-08870
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 6 June 2022
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Current status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 21 June 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support it will offer to ports not successful in the Green Freeports Programme to help them become supply chain and manufacturing bases for offshore renewables.
Answer
The Scottish Government will engage with all bidders for Green Freeport status, to examine relevant opportunities and build on the strategies they have set out.
As Co-Chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), I am leading on work to implement the five key recommendations in the Strategic Infrastructure Assessment (SIA) published in 2021, starting with the creation of a Scottish Offshore Wind Port Cluster.
On 11 May, we published the Offshore Wind Collaborative Framework Charter. 24 developers signed up to the Charter, which includes all active developers in Scotland and encompasses all 17 ScotWind projects.
The Charter builds on the 2021 SIA recommendations adopted by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), and is a clear way to support and enable developers’ collective supply chain commitments. The Charter will help forge effective partnerships to deliver on the potential that offshore wind presents in the coming years particularly those that present via our ports and harbours.