Question reference: S6W-25868
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 28 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 7 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is giving consideration to ensuring regional balance across the successful investment proposals progressed through the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council's (SOWEC) Strategic Investment Model.
Answer
As the world’s largest commercial round for floating offshore wind, ScotWind puts Scotland at the forefront of offshore wind development globally.
The Strategic Investment Model (SIM) is coordinated by offshore wind developers, the Scottish Government, enterprise agencies and Crown Estate Scotland. Each SIM project is considered in terms of its relevance to developing the offshore wind sector in Scotland.
In October the First Minister announced strategic investment of up to £500 million over the next five years to help stimulate and support private investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities critical to the growth of our world-leading offshore wind sector.
ScotWind provides an exciting opportunity to create thousands of good Scottish jobs and we want to ensure a just transition that takes our existing skilled workforce and supply chain with us. That is why we are kick-starting our commitment to anchor our offshore wind supply-chain in Scotland with investment of £67 million next financial year.
We are committed to maximising the public benefits of our renewables revolution and we will explore all options open to us to do so.