Aberdeen’s story is remarkable. Over half a century, the energy industry transformed the city from a fishing port into a global centre of excellence for offshore engineering, leading the world in oil and gas exploration. It is undoubtedly Europe’s energy capital, and as the economy decarbonises, it can remain so.
The just transition to a green economy is the next chapter in Aberdeen’s story.
The requirement for cheaper, sustainable sources of energy was brought into sharp focus following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the effect on global energy markets. Renewable energy made in Scotland’s waters is key to providing energy security and reducing the impact of climate change.
Scotland is at the forefront of the world’s offshore wind industry. Our coastline is dotted with windfarms providing clean, sustainable energy. In 2022, the Scottish Government made one of the biggest commitments to offshore wind in the world through the ScotWind auction round, a series of projects whereby almost half of the UK’s current generation will be built off Scotland’s shores within the next decade. The ScotWind projects alone will provide enough renewable power for every home in the UK.
Scotwind means £28 billion of investment in the north of Scotland. The manufacturing and supply chain requirements for these projects will require a level of industrialisation not seen in Scotland in generations. Aberdeen is at the heart of that investment.
Key to the delivery of these projects is the development of floating turbines out at sea where wind generation potential is higher. Aberdeen leads this technology globally: the world’s first floating wind farm was commissioned 30 km off the coast of Aberdeen in 2017.
The projects will require a planned capacity of 28GW secured from 2,000 new wind turbines across 20 new wind farms. They will utilise over 6,000 blades which, if laid end-to-end, would stretch from Edinburgh to London.
Importantly, floating wind borrows technology from the oil and gas industry in that the component parts are constructed and assembled onshore, then towed out to their operational locations. This has significant implications for real estate market: the manufacturing and supply chain requirements means that the north east of Scotland will need investment in port expansion, industrial and manufacturing centres, logistics hubs and new office space.
And in the longer term, this investment has real potential to create an environment for thousands of new jobs in the green economy, driving demand for housing and in turn for ancillary services like retail, leisure and education.
With new, clean power coming onshore in the north of Scotland, we will be able to host data centres, hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage facilities, lean steel manufacture, vertical farming and whole host of other technologies.
The North Sea has some of the highest generation potential for offshore wind in the world, but we are not the only nation competing for it. As we progress into this century, North Sea nations plan to install 260GW of offshore wind capacity – that’s ScotWind times 10 over, and enough electricity to power every home in the European Union. Stavanger and Bergen in Norway and Esbjerg in Denmark are Aberdeen’s competitors; all three are cities have an oil and gas heritage and all are investing in the economy of the future.
Like its competitor cities, Aberdeen is beginning to set out the building blocks for the new economy. It has an established engineering heritage, an expanding port and we have investors touting the city as the hub for the North Sea’s clean energy future.
ScotWind presents a huge opportunity, but to ensure this is just the beginning of the story, and that future investment and jobs in this space do not go elsewhere, Aberdeen must galvanise its efforts. The city’s future depends on collaboration between policy makers, funders, investors and developers to ensure a just transition to a green economy for the city.
Just as Aberdeen has led the world within the oil and gas sector, the city has the potential to be at the vanguard of clean energy within the global decarbonised economy of the future.
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