SCOTTISH green energy could be used to power the offices of banking “fat cats” in the City of London, The National can reveal.
A new deal struck by major property developer the Canary Wharf Group and the renewables arm of investment giant Brookfield will result in the construction of a new on-shore wind farm in the UK.
It would give clients such as HSBC, BP and the accounting firm EY cheaper energy bills and access to 70% renewable energy, with the potential for “much more”.
A spokesperson for the Canary Wharf Group said the company was exploring “a number of options, including Scotland” for the project.
The SNP said it showed the "potential" for Scottish renewables – which they said were constrained by the UK Government.
Alan Brown, the SNP's energy spokesperson at Westminster, said: "Scottish energy powering the UK’s financial base signals the potential and power of Scotland’s renewables sector which has been neglected by the Tory UK Government.
“The Tories’ snubbing of Scotland’s just transition and carbon capture projects is made to look all the more foolish when announcements like this are made, and show only the SNP Scottish Government is standing up for our energy sector.
“Proof here that Scottish renewable energy can be used to provide clean and cheaper electricity should also serve as a lesson to the Tories whose cost of living crisis has plunged tens of thousands of Scots into energy poverty.
“That should not be possible in an energy-rich nation, but Tory neglect of ordinary people and the potential of Scotland’s renewable sector has made it so.
"What’s clear is that Westminster is not fit to stand up for Scotland’s interests, and that only with the full powers of independence can we properly invest and empower our energy and renewables sector.”
Alba said it was a “scandal” Scottish energy could be used to power some of the UK’s biggest firms while Scots were “charged through the nose to heat their homes”.
The party’s depute leader, Kenny MacAskill, said: “Nothing demonstrates more that the energy market in Britain is broken than the fact that cheap clean green energy from Scotland is being supplied to the fat cats in the City of London while our own people are being charged through the nose to heat their homes and sky-rocketing energy bills are forcing many small businesses to the wall.
“This is a scandal and it is high time we had the powers of independence to fix the broken energy market and supply the affordable energy our people and small businesses need.”
In a press release announcing the deal between the two firms, Shobi Khan, the chief executive officer of the Canary Wharf Group, said: “To be truly sustainable, companies need to help those up and down their value chain to lower their environmental impact, as well as addressing their own emissions.
“This agreement will not only give Canary Wharf Group more control over emissions from our buildings: in adopting a partnership approach with Brookfield, it creates the certainty required to allow them to invest in construction of this windfarm and increase the UK’s overall supply of renewable energy.
“It will also create new options for our occupiers to lower their own footprints further.”
Tom O’Brien, the CEO of Brookfield’s renewable power and transition group, said: “We are pleased to be partnering with Canary Wharf Group on this power purchase agreement to help develop a new onshore windfarm in the UK.
“It is important that we continue to invest in and build the infrastructure required to help businesses accelerate their transition to cleaner forms of energy and achieve their net-zero targets.
“This power purchase agreement with Canary Wharf Group ensures their entire estate, including their customers, have access to reliable renewable power, with flexibility to expand as the Canary Wharf Group estate grows.”
Scotland is home to the onshore Whitelee wind farm, the UK's largest.
Onshore wind farms are effectively banned in England through planning law. As such, the project, expected to be commissioned by 2026, is unlikely to be built south of the Border.
