Offshore wind in Scotland is in a pivotal place. It has an established and growing fixed bottom capacity, with recent Contracts for Difference (CfD) success for Berwick Bank and a positive consent decision for West of Orkney Windfarm representing the likely next installations.
The Scotwind and Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing rounds have delivered a significant pipeline. A combination of fixed and floating, these projects will be developed over the next decade.
Green Volt, with its CfD award in Allocation Round 6, is leading the pack from a floating standpoint with Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm hot on its heels. We are at an inflection point where installed capacity will grow significantly over the coming years.
However, we must create a vibrant innovation ecosystem if we want Scotland to achieve its ambitious economic targets for offshore wind.
An accelerating industry
Offshore wind in Scotland is seen as a cornerstone of economic growth nationally, as well as a pillar of the green energy transition. As a sector, offshore wind has been vocal about the economic benefits it brings. The 2024 Scottish Government’s Offshore Wind Focus paper states 10,400 - 54,000 jobs could be delivered by the sector.
Many of these jobs are expected to come through investment in the Scottish supply chain. Through Scotwind, projects completed Supply Chain Development Statements (SCDSs) with an average commitment to Scottish spend of £1.4 bn per project.
This investment will lead to significant employment in the development and construction phases of Scottish projects. It is also hoped it will lead to an exportable capability that can service projects in the rest of Europe and further afield.
However, we need to help it flourish.
Building capability, not just capacity
There are two ways to grow a supply chain. Often, the first thought is expanding capacity. Expanding capacity involves new manufacturing facilities, and the expansion of the products and services which are already being delivered by the supply chain.
In addition, and Scotland is well-versed in this, growth can be delivered through new capabilities. New products and services which are brought to market by existing companies and start-ups have significant, and lasting, benefits for the economy.
Supply chain capacity through large manufacturing facilities delivers a significant boost in jobs. It enables high-value CAPEX items to be delivered by Scotland, for Scottish projects.
A lot of attention, rightly so, is focussed on attracting these significant opportunities. For example, cables, turbine components, and substructures. This has led to significant recent successes, with new manufacturers planning and delivering facilities in Scotland – for example the significant developments at both Scottish Green Freeports (Forth, and Inverness and Cromarty Firth)
This success demonstrates how a strong pipeline of projects can be an attractive draw for companies to establish new facilities in a country.
Innovation is what makes these locations attractive and enduring though, and it ensures that the economic benefits are truly sustainable in the long term.
The ecosystem effect
Innovation is an extremely broad term and often thrown around. But what is it, actually?
Innovation covers the full journey from fundamental research and development, through process improvement, prototyping, testing and validation, to deployment and commercialisation. It spans universities, start-ups, supply-chain companies of all sizes, equipment and turbine manufacturers, and developers.
It is easy to see that when a location has a strong innovation ecosystem it is more attractive to inward investors, but it also makes that investment more likely to be secured for the long term.
A factory in isolation is relatively straightforward to relocate. Now consider that factory utilising Intellectual Property (IP)accessed from innovative companies in the same region. Consider it fostering university partnerships that unlock cutting-edge research and a talent pool which can help to build and maintain a competitive edge.
These innovation-grown roots result in a significantly more difficult decision to relocate.
This is why investment in innovation is important. Direct economic benefits from companies commercialising new products and services, growing headcount and securing new revenue streams are clear.
But so too, are the indirect benefits. When a thriving network of innovation is layered on top of the strong industry pipeline, it leads to long-term sustainable economic and community impacts by helping to anchor the significant investments in supply chain capacity.
Scotland must ensure it continues to grow a vibrant innovation ecosystem that enables and directly contributes to Scotland’s ambitious economic targets for offshore wind. Maximising this requires all facets to be functioning well, minimising friction of pathways and interfaces.
Many actors, common impact
Universities push forward the frontier of knowledge through research, and their teaching generates some of the best and brightest minds entering the sector.
Start-ups are well equipped to move quickly and commercialise new ideas they have developed themselves or spun out from academia.
The supply chain, particularly equipment manufacturers, is in many ways the engine room in all this.
Established suppliers have the capacity to scale new technology and the ability to easily engage with corporate procurement. They are an outlet into the sector for both their own IP and the IP of partners such as universities and start-ups. Tier-1 suppliers enable projects to benefit from scale, by innovating larger turbines, or new vessels.
Developers and project companies must integrate it all together. They continuously develop and improve their engineering design approaches, and how all the packages fit together, whilst managing their risk profile carefully.
This activity is enabled by public and private funding through grants, investments and loans, as well as the support of research and technology organisations which can de-risk the development for innovators and the adoption for end-users.
Investing in Scotland’s innovation landscape drives sustainable growth for the economy, driven by our world-leading offshore wind pipeline. Financial investment de-risks the early stages of R&D. Investment of time and effort to reduce the complexity and friction of the landscape multiplies the impact.
Scotland’s ecosystem is already strong – but there is more to do to realise the full value potential.
In January 2025 Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (SOWEC), through its Innovation Working Group, published its first Innovation Guide.
SOWEC’s Innovation working group supports the offshore wind industry in Scotland to strive for innovative solutions to fundamental sector challenges.
This is the first in a series of blog posts that will explore some of the topics touched upon in the Innovation Guide. Subsequent posts will explore how we can overcome barriers to harnessing the value of innovation in Scotland, and the policy context of how the economic benefits of innovation can be enhanced.