Unlocking Scotland’s Sustainable Energy Future

The workshop also included interactive breakout sessions that identified the opportunities and blockers that need collectively addressing.

From the discussions, it was clear participants agreed the UK boasts a strong pipeline of projects, especially in Scotland and timely delivery of these projects is sufficient to achieve the substantial carbon reductions in line with the government’s commitment to net zero. There was a clear drive, motivation and commitment from those in the room to move into project delivery across the energy system.

There was also a strong message about the opportunity the energy transition offers to create jobs in Scotland and generate economic growth while also recognising the current lack of sufficient skills available in the Scottish market to support energy transition ambitions in Scotland. Re-imagining and reinstituting a skills passport that would provide training in key energy skills that are transferable across markets and encouragement/incentivisation of developers utilising workforce who are aligned with the scheme, was one solution participants offered.

The group also acknowledged the need for greater community engagement, a stronger emphasis on creating social value and a slicker integrated approach to planning and consent to speed up project development and enable faster project delivery.

The room welcomed the creation of Great British Energy and a more proactive approach by government to strategically invest in novel projects that meet Scotland’s decarbonisation objectives where private financing will not lead the market. It was also recognised that a blended financing approach would lead to a lower cost of capital and potentially partial public ownership of new generating assets.

A discussion also took place on Investment in projects with project-on-project risk where projects cross markets such as offshore wind and hydrogen. This was unanimously identified as a key challenge for industry, providing uncertainty on revenues and little incentive for developers to move away from existing mechanisms. One solution explored was the evolution of revenue mechanisms such as Contracts for Difference, cap and floor, and curtailment policy, to encourage cross market energy solutions and elimination of capacity waste.

The role of hydrogen blending into the gas network as an interim solution, followed by the construction of a new hydrogen transmission back bone with connectivity to Europe, was another solution proposed to derisking investment and providing an alternative route to market for energy generators.

Finally, the role of open access data and how common standards can help digital tools support the energy system transformation, was mentioned in many of the discussion points including the role of AI in forecasting demand growth and the uptake of electric vehicles and heat pumps, to using digital twins and immersive visualisation tools to support stakeholder engagement.