A new fund backed by the Scottish Government is offering £35million to next generation offshore wind projects. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond unveiled the POWERS fund at the second Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference in Edinburgh today.
The POWERS fund will be available solely to offshore wind turbine manufacturers, to tempt them to bring the production of full-scale prototypes to Scottish sites. Development agency Scottish Enterprise will run the scheme with the Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. They hope the fund will attract a further £80 million of private investment.
Mr Salmond said: “As developers and investors look across this global market for certainty and for leadership from government, they can look to Scotland to provide those things. We are determined to remain among the most attractive locations for manufacturing, including the prototype testing that follows the R&D phase.”
The offshore wind sector in Scotland could create up to 28,000 direct jobs and support 20,000 indirect jobs by 2020, according to a report by IPA Energy and Water economics, published by Scottish Enterprise last year.
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