Roundtable report: Anchoring a green energy revolution

As Scotland races to position itself at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution through offshore wind, its ports are the crucial gateways to a greener future. 

And with ambitious projects in the North Sea – centred on the 20 projects in the ScotWind leasing round and a further 12 under INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas) – these maritime hubs are poised to become the backbone of Scotland’s green industrial transformation. 

Ports need not only to provide the large quayside locations for pre-assembly and storage of the wind turbines, blades and other wind farm components that are shipped out to sea for final assembly. 

They also need to host the manufacture of the key supply chain parts used in offshore wind.

The Scottish Government’s Green Industrial Strategy, published in September 2024, aims to “maximise Scotland’s wind economy” by building on Scotland’s first-mover advantage in floating offshore wind to generate clean electricity by attracting more supply chain capacity. Much of that will need to be built at Scotland’s ports. 

Inward investment from overseas is an essential part of this, with companies from overseas eyeing Scotland’s ports as suitable locations for opportunities. Last summer, Scottish Enterprise worked with its Singapore counterpart, Enterprise Singapore, to bring nine companies from the Southeast Asian city-state to Aberdeen to study opportunities. 

“We are at an important juncture in the development of Scotland’s ports,” said Paul Wheelhouse, head of energy transition at South of Scotland Enterprise, as he introduced a recent Holyrood online roundtable on how to put Scotland’s ports at the heart of sustainable economic growth. “They have been in many ways an asset to our nation and have defined us as a nation and across the wider UK as well.”

The UK and Scottish governments each have allocated funding for port upgrades. In her October budget Chancellor Rachel Reeves allocated £134m for UK ports to facilitate floating offshore wind, while the Scottish budget in December committed £150m to accelerate investment in offshore wind, as part of a previous commitment of up to £500m over five years for the sector. 

However, as participants on the roundtable noted, significant challenges stand in the way of upgrading port infrastructure, securing investment, and ensuring local communities reap lasting benefits. 

Brian McFarlane, head of offshore wind development UK at SSE Renewables, said: “We will never realise the economic opportunity that offshore wind presents to the nation unless we can deliver the projects. Currently, no port in Scotland meets the demands for what any project needs. Whether it’s berths where there’s a bottleneck, restrictions in relation to access, space restrictions, or when you contract out as a project in relation to vessel sizes, support services and so forth.

“That’s just when you are talking about fixed bottom wind projects. We have 20 gigawatts of fixed bottom to come, and we have also got 20GW of floating to come. Just 1GW of floating offshore wind can tie up one, two or three ports for two to three years. So, with the current status of the ports, we’ve got a long way to go. 

Companies from overseas are eyeing Scotland’s ports as suitable locations for opportunities

Nonetheless, McFarlane said all of this pointed to an opportunity that government and industry can grasp. “If the ports have got the right set up, that will naturally encourage a lot of inward investment to set up the associated manufacturing facilities. It’s a catalyst, an enabler for further investment,” he said. 

There are already signs of progress. Gillian Martin, acting cabinet secretary for net zero and energy, pointed to Hunterston in Ayrshire. The site, once an industrial wasteland marked by the remnants of the coal industry, is being revitalised through a £20 million investment from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) in a cable factory by Essex-based XLCC, using technology from Chinese company Orient Cable. Up to 900 jobs will be created. “It’s the biggest shot in the arm that Ayrshire has had in 40 years,” Martin noted.

Work is also well underway at Nigg in the Cromarty Firth on Sumitomo Electric of Japan’s £350 million factory for the high-voltage subsea cables that carry power from offshore to transmission networks on land. Nearby lies Ardesier Port, the largest brownfield port site in Scotland, covering an area equivalent to 200 football pitches. Civil engineering works are advancing under US owner Haventus to develop the quayside so it can handle the weight of offshore wind turbines, some of which can be as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Dredging starts in late March to deepen the harbour to accommodate the size of vessels that will deliver the offshore wind components. The company, owned by Texas private equity firm Quantum Capital Group, says Ardesier is on track to open in the second half of this year. 

The funding challenge

The scale of investment needed to transform Scotland’s ports, however, is enormous – dwarfing both the amounts allocated by both governments and private sector commitments so far. As Crown Estate Scotland chief executive Ronan O’Hara put it bluntly: “We are going to need mountains of cash.” He pointed to new opportunities through GB Energy, the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and potential new investment borrowing powers that could leverage up to £90bn in funding. 

Last May, the first significant tranche of public funding into ports came with the provision of a £100m credit facility to Ardesier, split equally between SNIB and the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB). This demonstrated what Martin called government’s role in “proving that government has faith in a project” to encourage private finance.

Yet the funding landscape is complicated by the diverse nature of Scotland’s ports. James Buck, head of marine service and transportation and harbour master at Orkney Future Ports, explained that there are three different types of ports – municipal, commercial, and trust ports – each with different abilities to access investment. “Unless you are a large commercial port with a big organisation behind you, most of these ports are a one trick pony with one person,” he said, highlighting the need for targeted support for smaller ports. 

Tackling this and other issues is on the agenda of the Scottish Offshore Wind Ports Alliance (SOWPA), launched in May last year with the aim of “optimising large-scale operations and addressing common and complex industry challenges through knowledge sharing and collaboration”.   

Planning and infrastructure hurdles

Planning is another significant bottleneck in port development. Buck identified shoreside planning as a particular challenge, with decisions often delayed by lengthy environmental assessment processes. Infrastructure costs pose another barrier. Buck cited having to pay “almost £1.5m to upgrade the entire island’s electricity chain to put one charger in one port.”

The planning system’s fitness for purpose was questioned by multiple stakeholders. Michael Marra, MSP for Dundee and shadow cabinet secretary for finance, warned that supply chain opportunities at the Port of Leith are already at risk due to lengthy planning processes for the Berwick Bank project, a 4GW fixed-bottom offshore wind farm under development by SSE Renewables. Pending consent, Vestas is set to make turbines blades for the project at Port of Leith. 

In response, Martin noted that the Scottish Government had “more than doubled the personnel in the ECU [Energy Consents Unit] and have the commitment to reaching a decision within 52 weeks.” Holyrood has also committed to the establishment of a Scottish Government hub for offshore wind in Aberdeen to provide an additional route for industry to engage with civil service teams.

Cells which will top a wind turbine tower and ultimately have blades fitted to them | Picture: ALAMY

Building local supply chains

Creating robust local supply chains remains a crucial challenge. Professor Mhairi Spowage, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute (University of Strathclyde), highlighted that businesses operating in renewables often find this work less profitable than oil and gas activities, with many looking abroad where government investment is more certain. She called for a strategic approach. “Identifying where we can build supply chains on our current specialisms is important. We need to build on our current strengths and not try and do everything,” she said. 

Community benefits and training

Many participants raised the importance of ensuring that local communities benefit meaningfully from port developments – not just immediately, but in the long-term. “When it comes to community benefits, what people need to see is real benefits, not just the donation of football shirts to local football teams,” Marra said. “It has to be about long-term infrastructure, and about jobs so that people see their neighbours, their own kids and nephews and nieces having a future in a job that pays well.”

A good example of this approach is Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone (ETZ), the UK’s largest dedicated energy transition complex that has funding from both governments. Its 250 hectares adjacent to Aberdeen’s South Harbour are the focus of an investment programme to deliver market-ready properties and sites for high-value manufacturing and the broader energy transition supply chain. 

Sarens PSG, a provider of specialist equipment and workers for offshore wind farm projects, in December announced a £1.6m investment to create a new centre of excellence at the ETZ, creating 25 new jobs. One of the Singapore companies on last year’s visit to Aberdeen, Mooreast, is poised to advance plans to build a factory next to South Harbour that will make the huge anchors needed to tether floating wind farms to the seabed, in a move that will also create local jobs.  

Douglas Lumsden, MSP for Northeast Region and shadow cabinet secretary for net zero and energy, said: “For me the greatest community benefit is having skills, training and well-paid jobs for the people living in the vicinity of the port.”

Ronan O’Hara of Crown Estate Scotland pointed out that providing apprenticeships and training must be part of the long-term mix. “We are going to need boots on the ground, we are going to need the people with the skills. And we are going to be in competition with our neighbours in mainland Europe. The talent and capital will flow to the readiest and easiest opportunity,” he said.

Looking ahead

The transformation of Scotland’s ports represents a critical juncture in the country’s journey to net zero. Success will require unprecedented coordination between governments, port authorities, private investors, and local communities. As Professor John Underhill, director of the interdisciplinary centre for energy transition at Aberdeen University argued, ports should be considered “strategic critical infrastructure” alongside cables, pipelines, and energy facilities.

Hugh Yendole, project director at Salamander Offshore Wind Farm, outlined key actions needed. Governments must de-risk investment through guarantees, accelerate planning and grid reforms, improve pipeline visibility, and engage proactively with overseas investors. Additionally, investment in training and research and development should be structured for the long term to help companies move from early concept to market-ready status.

The stakes are high, but so too is the potential reward. As Kirsty McNeill, parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland in UK Government, emphasised, ports will be “absolutely central” to both the UK’s growth mission and clean energy ambitions. She pointed out that port infrastructure is one of five priority sectors that have been allocated a total of £5.8bn in funding in the NWF’s overall £7.3bn funding package.

“The underlying thinking of mission-based government is rooted in two things. The first is long-termism and I want to give you our solemn commitment that the government is making decisions from a long-term perspective,” McNeill said. 

“The next is partnership. That’s partly about resetting the relationship with the Scottish Government. The commitment to reset is very deep and enduring on our side and is already paying dividends. It’s also about resetting with Scottish stakeholders more widely, so this is an open invitation to treat this conversation as the start of a long-term one about ports.” 

Sponsored by Crown Estate Scotland, SSE, Orkney Future Ports, and Simply Blue Group.