A NEW paper outlining the “galling” ownership of Scotland’s renewable energy resources by other countries’ state-owned companies has been published.
Kenny MacAskill, the Alba MP and former Scottish justice secretary, said the paper showed the extent of nationalised energy companies operating “in Scottish waters for the benefit and ultimate profit of another country”.
Among the renewable projects the Alba depute leader has highlighted in his new report are the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, which is entirely owned by the Swedish state-run firm Vattenfall AB, and Hywind Scotland, in which both the Norwegian and United Arab Emirates governments have a major stake.
MacAskill also pointed to two wind farms which are under construction in Scotland but which will see the profits go to the benefit of other nations, saying he was “seriously concerned at Scotland’s failure to have ownership of the wind revolution taking place off our shores”.
The first of these is Neart Na Gaoithe, which is off the Fife coast in the outer Firth of Forth. This project is co-owned by EDF Group, the French state-owned power company, and Electricity Supply Board (ESB), the state-owned electricity company of the Republic of Ireland.
The second is the Inch Cape wind farm, which is a massive project expected to be Scotland’s largest single source of renewable power when built. Ireland’s ESB also has a stake in this project, alongside Red Rock Power Limited.
Red Rock Power is a subsidiary of the Beijing-based SDIC Power. This is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Chinese government-controlled State Development and Investment Corporation owns around half of it.
MacAskill’s report said that these four projects have the “combined energy potential of 1.5 GW of power, enough to power over 1 million households in Scotland”.
The Alba MP (above) said the new paper showed “clearly the extent of foreign ownership of Scotland’s renewable energy resources by state-owned energy companies”.
He went on: “I am seriously concerned at Scotland’s failure to have ownership of the offshore wind revolution taking place off our shores.
“These state-owned companies are operating in Scotland and have obtained offshore wind farm developments. However, none are either Scottish or UK state operators. Instead, they operate in Scottish waters for the benefit and ultimate profit of another country.
“China, the United Arab Emirates, France, Sweden, Norway, and Ireland all have more of a stake in our natural bounty than our own government. That is galling enough. But what makes that even worse is that states with appalling human rights records, whether China or the UAE, also have our assets.
“Meanwhile Scots who cannot afford to heat their homes can only look and imagine what might have been, with the absurdity of a huge resource being of profit to another nation but not their own.”
MacAskill called out the Scottish Government for the “abandonment” of their policy of setting up a nationalised energy firm, with the idea being dropped in late 2021. He said the decision meant Scotland had “surrendered any prospect of a stake in what is a vital national asset and resource”.
The MP said Scotland should instead “demand a government-owned stake in every single one of the wind farms being developed”.
He added: “That is the only way we can secure the revenues and the manufacturing and supply chain jobs that our communities are desperately crying out for, rather than seeing the revenues and jobs moved offshore.”
