Speaking at the Scottish Renewables’ Offshore Wind and Supply Chain Conference last week, Jonathan Cole, Scottish Power Renewables managing director, said the hopes of the offshore wind industry had been “raised and rapidly confounded.”
Discussions about the future of the sector centred on the imminent decision on the first Contracts for Difference allocation round which was pushed back in September last year, and the threat of a judicial review of planning consents, called for by RSPB Scotland.
However, Cole stressed that there are reasons to be “optimistic” about a sector which is “growing and creating jobs”.
There are currently six consented projects totalling up to 4.15GW in Scottish waters.
Alan Duncan, senior associate at BVG Associates, hailed the UK as a “focus of the world’s offshore renewables industry” and urged the sector to “displace existing supply chains” in Denmark and Germany.
He said: “Be assured: the UK will continue to lead the world in offshore wind to 2030, and there is no other industry which gives us the chance to do that.”
Country manager for Dong Energy’s UK wind power business, Benj Sykes, emphasised the importance of keeping costs down to create a larger industry.
He suggested that “future certainty from government” would be the single thing most likely to “drive success”.