Ports and shipyards in Scotland are being given £70m to help tackle a multibillion pound funding gap facing the offshore "green economy", Alex Salmond has announced.
The first minister said the investment fund would allow
Scottish ports and
wind farm factories to upgrade their facilities to meet the immense challenge of building and installing the vast
offshore wind and
marine energy farms planned by ministers.
"We are a nation with considerable natural and human resources and the political will needed to deliver a green energy revolution that can build sustainable economic recovery and reduce Europe's carbon emissions," he told to the RenewableUK annual conference in Glasgow today.
He said the £70 million fund would help "leverage" further private funding for ports at Leith in Edinburgh and Dundee, and fabrication yards at Nigg near Inverness and Methil in Fife, which are among the sites most likely to win support from the fund.
It would allow Scotland to create around £7 billion and 28,000 jobs from green energy over the next decade, but business leaders and banks have warned the UK's facilities are too poor and fragmented.
Around 7,000 wind turbines are expected to be built offshore around the UK over the next 10 years, with Scotland expected to see 40 per cent of the UK-wide
investment. Scottish Enterprise, the investment agency, estimates at least £222 million is needed immediately to upgrade 11 key Scottish green energy sites.
Last month, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced a very similar £60 million fund for ports and fabrication yards in England; Salmond said his larger fund will be "open for business immediately", while the DECC funds will become available next April.
His announcement is the latest in a series of high-profile green energy statements by Salmond in his campaign to make Scotland the "Saudi Arabia" of the
renewables industry, and to project his Nationalist Government as one of the world leaders on renewables.
In September, he set a tougher green electricity target of 80 per cent by 2020, and claimed Scotland could generate 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
However, Salmond's decision to set up this £70 million fund marks a defeat for his ambitions to create a larger Scottish 'green investment bank' worth at least £360 million with help from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other major institutions.
Salmond had thought that George Osborne, the chancellor, was sympathetic to his pleas for the Treasury to release £190 million accrued to Scotland from its share of the fossil fuel levy on energy bills.
The first minister hoped to use that cash to kick-start the green investment bank and get the EIB to match it with European renewables funding; the £360 million would then be used for a massive investment programme in Scottish renewables ports and infrastructure.
But to the first minister's fury, the Treasury has decided to stick to its traditional rule that the money would be counted as part of the Scottish Government's block grant from the UK Government. In other words, if it paid out the £190 million from the levy, it would lose £190 million from its block grant.
This story has been published under licence from Guardian Sustainable Business, of which GreenWise is an editorial partner.
Related news:
Green policy news
Green finance news
Renewables news
