Unlocking Scotland’s Sustainable Energy Future
Arup hosted an interactive roundtable in Edinburgh, bringing together industry leaders, policymakers and visionaries to discuss challenges and opportunities in accelerating Scotland’s energy transition.
With a new UK Government in place, establishment of Great British Energy, the imminent establishment of the National Energy System Operator and change in leadership in Scotland, the Scottish energy landscape is set to go through a period of growth and evolution.
Arup recently hosted an interactive roundtable workshop in Edinburgh with industry leaders, policy makers and visionaries dedicated to shaping Scotland’s energy landscape.
The event provided a unique opportunity to discuss the key challenges that lie ahead and the shared opportunities to accelerate the pace of the energy transition with representatives from across generation, transmission, and policy.
Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Gillian Martin MSP, addressed attendees, providing valuable perspectives on the policy landscape and the future of sustainable energy in Scotland, to realise their ambitions for clean energy and address blockers/ barriers in enabling this. Ms Martin emphasised the need for government to set priorities to support and work with industry to end energy volatility and provide the right environment to enable industry experts understand the direction of government. She also outlined five key priorities at the heart of the green industrial strategy published on the same day as the roundtable event, encompassing hydrogen, offshore wind, CCUS, supporting green economy professional and financial services, and attracting clean energy intensive industries, such as data centres to Scotland.
During the workshop Head of group Strategy, Emma Leishman from SSE plc, presented a private sector perspective shedding light on the industry’s role in driving sustainable energy initiatives. She highlighted the need for industry to show the right signals ensuring longevity in huge investments being made in sectors such as floating offshore wind and hydrogen.
Ms Leishman also stressed the need for the private sector to think more about challenging areas facing the industry and the need to support sectors not commercially viable yet.
Max Goodwin, NECCUS Board member gave a comprehensive status update and outlook of the Scottish Net Zero Roadmap (SNZR). He outlined various modelling scenarios that have been completed and then compared to provide a strong vision for the path that Scottish industry can take, producing a dynamic source of live information that can be used in many future decision-making scenarios.
Mr Goodwin also highlighted projects including Scotland’s Project Acorn joint venture, which will provide critical CO2 transport and storage infrastructure to enable the decarbonisation of the Scottish Cluster.
Essential to this is the government confirming its commitment to the industrial clusters “Track” process, taking the investment decisions on Track 1 and accelerating Track 2 that includes progressing Project Acorn. In addition, further clarity and reform is required in other business models such as long duration storage to unlock private sector investment in the significant number of pumped hydro projects in the Highlands.
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.
The component parts required to decarbonise, create jobs, and grow the economy through the energy revolution all exist in Scotland and this session has demonstrated the will and the projects are there to make it happen. Collaboration and coordination are now needed to deliver on that potential.
Mark Neller
UKIMEA Energy Leader, Arup
Getting to net zero is a massive opportunity with the existing resource Scotland has. The UK’s many public-private partnerships offer an opportunity to spread prosperity, attract inward investment and people to come and work in Scotland, with strong community collaboration and economic growth at the centre of reaching net zero ambitions.
Gillian Martin MSP
Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
Energy at Arup
We are committed to imagining, designing and realising green energy solutions to shape the future energy system.
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