The UK Government will take decisive action to help make available billions of pounds in funding across the UK including for Scotland’s clean energy industry, the Energy Secretary has pledged ahead of a visit to Aberdeen.

The Energy Secretary will visit Aberdeen with Great British Energy Chair Juergen Maier for the first time since the city was announced as the headquarters for the UK’s new publicly-owned energy company.

Following the visit, the UK Government is set to sign a new agreement with the Scottish Government today (Thursday 17 October) to boost Great British Energy’s ambitions to support clean energy supply chains and infrastructure.

By developing partnerships with Scottish public bodies in the clean energy sector – including Crown Estate Scotland, the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank – Great British Energy can deliver quickly and effectively, avoid duplication, and deliver maximum impact and value for money from Scottish projects.

Scotland has a strong pipeline of opportunities and is at the forefront of floating offshore wind development, and Great British Energy is in prime position to help accelerate this work by harnessing expertise in project development, investment and work with local communities.

Great British Energy has £8.3 billion of funding over this Parliament, and work is underway with the energy industry in Scotland to use this for public investment to create new private sector jobs and drive projects in Scotland.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:

Scottish energy workers will power the United Kingdom’s clean energy future- including in carbon capture and storage, in hydrogen, in wind, and with oil and gas for decades to come as part of a fair transition in the North Sea.

Unlike in the past we’re also working closely with the Scottish Government with a new agreement to ensure our publicly owned company Great British Energy is primed to accelerate clean energy investment in Scotland.

This follows the announcement in the summer of a partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate, covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which could support the leveraging of up to £30-60 billion of private investment.

Ahead of the visit, the UK Government has also confirmed that oil and gas workers will be supported to move more easily into careers in the renewable sector, including offshore wind, as the UK government accelerates delivery of a ‘skills passport’.

The passport is an industry led initiative overseen by RenewableUK and Offshore Energies UK and supported by the UK and Scottish Governments which will align standards, recognise transferable skills and qualifications and map out career pathways for suitable roles. A digital tool for workers is set to be piloted by January 2025. 

The UK Government’s Office for Clean Energy Jobs is working closely with Skills England to support other British workers on the energy transition, which by 2030 could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the UK.

Many of the skills required for the transition already exist, with research from Offshore Energies UK showing that 90% of oil and gas workers have transferable skills for offshore renewable jobs.

Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Gillian Martin said:

I welcome this collaborative agreement committing Great British Energy to work with our public bodies to maximise investment into Scotland. Scotland already has a strong pipeline of clean energy and supply chain opportunities, is at the forefront of floating offshore wind development, and has a depth of knowledge and experience on community & local energy. We look forward to working with Great British Energy to ensure it delivers real benefits for the people of Scotland and a just energy transition.

To make sure that no offshore energy workers are left behind, the Scottish Government provided initial funding of £3.7 million between 2022 – 2024 for the development of the industry-led Skills Passport.

Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Murray said:

The UK government will support our world class, world leading offshore workforce with the recognition they deserve and support the transition to renewable jobs in the future.

This is an area the UK Government and Scottish Government can and should work in partnership to deliver for Scotland and harness the potential we have to truly lead the world in renewables jobs. That’s why we have set out to reset the relationship between Scotland’s two governments to deliver better outcomes for Scots.

It should be easier to switch between oil and gas and renewables work offshore. The present situation, where training in one industry isn’t recognised in the other, cuts off opportunities for oil and gas workers. The fact some workers are paying out of their own pockets is scandalous.

We need to cut that red tape and deliver a skills passport that allows offshore workers to move flexibly back and forth between both industries in the years and decades to come.

Great British Energy Chair Juergen Maier said:

The clean energy transition is a huge opportunity for Scotland, which is already at the cutting edge of technology like floating offshore wind, and Great British Energy is well positioned to help accelerate the development of key supply chains and infrastructure.

By working closely with the Scottish Government, alongside The Crown Estate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we can help to drive forward investment and create jobs across the country.

RenewableUK’s Executive Director of Offshore Wind Jane Cooper said:

The upsurge in offshore wind jobs over the course of this decade and beyond creates excellent opportunities for highly-skilled oil and gas workers to bring their valuable experience to the clean energy sector. We’re working closely with our colleagues at Offshore Energies UK, and the UK and Scottish Governments, to make that transition as smooth as possible across all parts of the energy industry. The Energy Skills Passport is a great example of what we can achieve together and we’ll continue to look for other potential areas of work that can further support the transition of workers between sectors.

David Whitehouse, Chief Executive Officer, Offshore Energies UK comments:

This package of announcements contains significant measures for firms, their workers and their supply chains across the UK. The skills passport is an important part of the toolkit industry is assembling in recognition of the integrated nature of the energy landscape. Those working in our domestic oil and gas sector have powered the country for the last fifty years and will play a critical role in our energy future. The sector is committed to working in partnership with government to leverage our industrial strengths to deliver a managed transition that creates opportunities for people and communities around the country.

In Wales, the UK Government is already discussing how Great British Energy could work in partnership with their publicly-owned renewable energy developer, Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, and other public bodies to deliver on shared priorities with the Welsh Government. 

The UK Government is also working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive on opportunities for Northern Ireland, to help accelerate the clean energy transition across the United Kingdom.

Yesterday (Wednesday 16 October) the Energy Secretary also confirmed that Liz Ditchburn has been appointed as Chair of the North Sea Transition Authority, which regulates and influences the oil, gas, carbon storage and offshore hydrogen industries. Liz is a highly experienced public sector leader and will help to deliver the UK Government’s plans for a phased, responsible and prosperous energy transition in the North Sea.

Notes

The skills passport will show how these offshore workers’ skills and qualifications can be recognised by employers across various sectors, facilitating their smooth transition into the renewable energy sector. It will identify where oil and gas health and safety standards will be recognised in the offshore wind sector and map out different career pathways into the wind industry. 

See figures on clean energy jobs.