Sumitomo Electric UK Power Cables (SEUK) has secured a funding package for an estimated £350 million inward investment project in Scotland.
Japanese company Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd (SEI), the parent firm of SEUK, announced plans in May 2023 to develop a power cable factory in the Scottish Highlands. The project aimed to supply high-voltage cables to the area’s growing offshore wind energy sector.
Joint investment from the Scottish government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Scottish Enterprise has resulted in a £24.5 million funding package to support this development.
The package comprises £19.37 million in Scottish Government funding, £4.6 million from HIE and £530,000 from Scottish Enterprise, and will help the project invest in equipment, construction of a new purpose-built factory, and long-term land leasing.
The funding will also contribute to the creation of around 330 jobs in Scotland over the next 10 years, 265 of which will be in the Highlands and Islands, including 156 manufacturing jobs on site.
Stuart Black, HIE chief executive, called the project a “fantastic opportunity for the region” and hailed it as “one of the biggest ever inward investment projects” for the area.
He added: “We expect to see hundreds of high-quality employment opportunities created during the construction phase and beyond, including opportunities throughout the supply chain.”
In addition, the chief executive at Scottish Enterprise, Adrian Gillespie, said: “Sumitomo’s decision to locate in Scotland is good news, both for the Highlands region and because it adds another critical capability to Scotland’s supply chain offering in offshore wind.”
Scotland’s offshore potential
As a nation, Scotland has surpassed a number of significant milestones in its transition to renewable energy. One recent triumph was confirmed in research published by Scottish Renewables, which revealed that green technologies produced 113% of Scotland’s electricity demand for the first time in 2022.
Renewable sources generated 26% more (roughly 35TWh) than the preceding year, superseding Scotland’s now non-official renewable electricity target of 100%.
Offshore wind is an increasingly integral resource in this system, with several considerably large projects currently being developed.
Moray West offshore wind farm is one of said projects; it is currently under construction but is expected to begin generating power later this year in 2024 and will have an 882MW generation capacity once fully operational.
The contract for this project was procured in the fourth auction round (AR4) of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) in July 2022 and has since secured £2 billion of non-recourse project finance from an EDP Renewables and ENGIE joint venture.
Moreover, the Seagreen 1A substation, dubbed ‘Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm’, was unanimously approved by East Lothian Council’s Planning Committee in August 2023.
Seagreen Wind Energy Ltd (SWELL) – a joint venture between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies – aims to build the remaining 36 of the 150 consented offshore wind turbines adjacent to Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm.
The plans also propose a ‘cable corridor’ to the Seagreen wind farm to enable an additional 500MW of renewable energy capacity, bolstering it to 1.6GW.
In September 2023, the Scottish government furthered its involvement in renewable energy production by signing an agreement to reduce planning time for onshore wind developments in the country to 12 months.
The deal was signed at the Onshore Wind Conference by Claire Mack, chief executive of Scottish Renewables; Neil Gray, cabinet secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy; Gillian Martin, Scottish minister for energy and the environment, and Barry Carruthers, chair of the G12/S5 Onshore Wind Sector Working Group.
The agreement aims to support the Scottish government in reaching its target of 20GW onshore wind by 2030, more than double Scotland’s current operational capacity of 9.3GW.
