Perth-based utility giant SSE has called on the government to take action to help skilled workers made redundant from the North Sea oil and gas industry to transfer their skills into the offshore wind energy sector.
The crude oil price slump has led to the loss of some 10,000 Scots energy jobs in Grampian and more than 100,000 across the UK supply-chain.
SSE provided a case study on the Greater Gabbard wind farm in the southern North Sea as evidence to MPs on the Commons’ Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.
Meanwhile, RES Energy – which employs some 450 people across the UK – told British energy Minister Greg Clark that the ‘most important’ single decision he could make to square the circle of a coherent energy policy and industrial strategy would be is to announce and run a second CfD Pot 1 allocation round as soon as possible.
An RES spokesman said: “A small budget, around £30- £50 million, would be sufficient to bolster deeply damaged developer, supply chain and investor confidence and stimulate growth, with knock-on benefits across the whole UK low carbon infrastructure sector and our international competitiveness.
“The price discovery that would emerge from such an auction would be of great value in creating a clear energy policy and fostering the political confidence in providing long term visibility needed to incentivise supply chain investments.
“And it would help to insulate the sector from the additional and significant risks arising from British Independence from the EU-bloc’.
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