Question reference: S6W-01648
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 20 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 4 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many windfarms are (a) publicly and (b) privately owned; whether it will list the names of the owners of each wind farm, and what financial support it has provided in each of the last 14 years for the (i) private sector, (ii) public sector and (iii) community development of windfarms.
Answer
On parts (a) and (b) of the question - this information is not held by the Scottish Government.
On parts (i), (ii) and (iii) of the question - we do not give specific financial support to windfarms, but have supported offshore wind innovation via grant funding totalling over £9.5 million since 2014, to initiatives which help towards the reduction in cost of this technology.
This includes almost £8 million to the Carbon Trust to support the Offshore Wind Accelerator and Floating Wind Joint Industry Project - programmes which utilise a market-led approach to address technical challenges in order to lower the levelised cost of energy. We have also provided £1.5 million to the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, to match fund a number of projects in partnership with industry and the Welsh Government through their Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence. These projects explored barriers and opportunities for floating wind in Scotland across innovative areas including oil platform electrification using floating wind, floating substructure fabrication in Scotland, and mapping the Scottish supply chain.