Scottish Power has confirmed it secured 19 renewable energy projects in the first six months of 2022 totalling more than 9GW – a record for the firm.
This showcases the drive the company has made in scaling its renewable portfolio in addition to spearheading the decarbonisation of energy infrastructure.
ScottishPower was amongst others that received leasing via the ScotWind initiative in January 2022. Successful floating wind projects came from SSE Renewables, Falck Renewables, Shell New Energies, Vattenfall, DEME, ScottishPower Renewables, BayWa r.e. and Northland Power. Of these, ScottishPower’s 3,000MW project has the largest capacity.
This project, alongside a 2,000MW project that was also successful, is being developed as part of a collaboration between ScottishPower and Shell. Keith Anderson, CEO of ScottishPower, said the projects would deliver investment, support jobs and boost supply chains, creating “immense opportunities for businesses and institutions across the country”.
This helped boost Scottish Power’s offshore wind pipeline to more than 10GW.
“The momentum of the first six months of 2022 and our record of achievement now gives us our biggest ever investment pipeline of green energy assets to help deliver the Government’s energy strategy and net zero for the UK,” Anderson said.
“Accelerating at pace on green energy infrastructure has never been more important than it is now and is the answer to the issues we’re seeing globally on energy security and cost and the group is well placed to support the vital transition to a cleaner, greener and more secure energy market.”
Scottish is also catering for the mass surge in its renewable project pipeline by launching its biggest ever recruitment drive, with aims to hire at least 1,000 new recruits in the next 12 months.
This will help the company develop a number of projects from its record breaking first half of the year. This includes several key developments over the course of the year to date.
The company won Contracts for Difference support earlier this year for 16 renewable energy projects across offshore wind, onshore wind and solar in the Allocation Round 4 process. This is a total of 2.1GW and will almost double the company’s green energy generation capacity and involve £4 billion in investment.
This contributes heavily to the company’s renewable energy project pipeline.
National Grid ESO’s Holistic Network Design plan – released earlier this month – also set out the need for £5 billion in investment across 12 of SP Energy Networks (SPEN) onshore transmission projects to help deliver the UK’s offshore wind targets.
Lastly, Ofgem’s Draft Determination for the RIIO-ED2 price control period included a £3 billion upgrade for SPEN’s distribution network further adding to the company’s renewable pipeline and developments.
“With this huge investment comes jobs and supply chain opportunities and we are now actively recruiting least 1,000 people to join us in new positions to design, build and operate this green energy infrastructure and help fulfil our ambitions,” said Anderson.
