Scotland’s offshore wind renewables sector is reaching a critical point in its journey. Following the ScotWind leasing round, a slew of developers are  endeavoring to make huge offshore projects a reality. The opportunity for Scotland offshore developers is immense – Offshore Wind Scotland estimates the latest leasing round will add a further 30GW over the next 10 years and a further 19.2GW of floating offshore making Scotland a world leader; this on top of the 10GW already being generated. Yet many challenges remain, relying on the views and ambitions of three key audiences – government, suppliers and communities. Now is the time when offshore renewables developers need to increase their communications with each of these audiences.

Some twenty major offshore renewables sites are being developed as part of the ScotWind license round.  They represent some of the largest energy projects in the UK (Morven offshore wind will have 2.9GW capacity and Ossian floating offshore wind will have 3.6GW capacity) and critical to the nation’s climate change targets. As national infrastructure projects, they are subject to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate consent and therefore most of the dialogue to date has been with Scottish Government officials, involving the submission of offshore scoping reports and environmental impact assessments (EIAs). 2025 and 2026 should see many of the projects finalising their consent with the Scottish Government.

The challenge for developers is less on Scottish Government consent and more on the regulatory, financial and supply-side issues. These are major issues that need to be tackled. On the regulatory side, most of the issues lie at a UK-level. From the Contract for Difference (CfD) regime, which does not reflect the higher costs associated with offshore wind projects in Scotland, through to transmission charges (TNUoS), which has imposed increased costs rendering projects less competitive, major developments in Scotland face All of these will affect the final investment decision for these mega-projects and developers need to effectively lobby the UK Government for appropriate changes.

Strengthening Supply Chains for a Competitive Edge

The supply side brings additional challenges in a globally competitive space. The Scottish Government is keen to develop major ports, partly as part of the Green Freeport developments. Nevertheless, attracting major inward investment from foreign supply-chain companies, such as blade manufacturers, remains a challenge. This will undoubtedly be a major focus of discussion when the spring, but Scotland has only had limited success in attracting major suppliers to date. With tight finances, developers will not wish to be shackled with higher supply-chain costs if they can be bought more cheaply overseas, so early engagement with the Scottish Government and enterprise agencies is critical to ensure they understand the pressures on the industry. Delivering major manufacturing suppliers to Scotland would make a positive impact on community perception of the industry.

Building Trust with Communities

The third audience is communities. Scotland’s fishing community are already raising significant concerns about the impact of offshore renewables, whilst onshore communities are concerned about the major infrastructure required for bringing the energy onshore. There are increasing concerns from communities about the impact of substations and pylons and attracting wider energy projects to the area. These concerns put the consent for onshore infrastructure for ScotWind programmes at risk and could inhibit the transmission of energy to areas of demand. Offshore renewables developers need to ensure that communities feel the benefits of their projects through community benefit schemes and long-term engagement programmes.

As the ScotWind projects reach a critical point in their development, all developers need to start ramping up their external engagement programmes with these three audiences firmly in mind. Failure to do so brings significant reputational and financial risks and creating genuine partnerships with government, suppliers and communities will increase the chances of Scotland’s ScotWind projects being a global exemplar.

Grayling’s Planning & Infrastructure team support energy developers across the UK and our Scotland-based team has extensive experience supporting offshore and onshore wind projects.

Our Planning & Infrastructure team have a proven track record of delivering successful and meaningful local engagement campaigns, including pre-consenting consultation and strategic communications, as well as ongoing construction communications and providing social value.

If you require project-specific communications and engagement support or are seeking broader public affairs or corporate affairs support, please contact planning&infrastructure@grayling.com.