SSE invested close to four times as much into the low-carbon energy sector as it made in profits in the first half of its financial year, totalling £1.7 billion.
Unveiled within its interim results, the firm stated that it had invested a record £1.7 billion compared to adjusted profit after tax of £489 million. This is in comparison to the previous year which stood at £1 billion.
Of this figure, SSE invested £1.1 billion in building and operating offshore and onshore wind farms, upgrading transmission and distribution networks as well as developing carbon capture and hydrogen storage technologies.
The financial results had benefitted from good performance across SSE’s thermal energy business, it claimed. This included flexible gas-fired power stations and gas storage facilities.
SSE also stated that it had invested around £640 million in strategic acquisitions in opportunities to deliver more clean infrastructure.
One of SSE’s investments within the offshore wind sector, which recently came to fruition, was the Seagreen offshore wind farm situated 27km off the coast of Agnus in Scotland, which started generating its first power in August.
This £3 billion offshore wind farm is recognised as the “largest” in Scotland with a generation capacity of just over 1GW and is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2023.
SSE is working on what the firm has said is some of the largest low-carbon infrastructure projects in the world in addition to Seagreen, including the £3.6 billion Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, which is set to be the world’s largest, and the £580 million Viking onshore wind farm.
“We have delivered a good strategic and financial performance reflecting the strength of our business model. This has enabled us to invest far more than we earn – building and operating the clean homegrown energy infrastructure that will provide a sustainable solution to the current energy crisis,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, chief executive of SSE.
“By SSE’s own estimates, if the system investment required to meet 2030 targets had been delivered by 2022, around £30bn would have been saved in GB expenditure on gas this year.”
SSE previously stated that its investment in the Great British electricity infrastructure system could total over £24 billion by the end of this decade.
Its investment plans – assuming a continued supportive policy environment – include radically increasing renewables capacity, with a fivefold increase in output by 2031, as well as upgrading electricity networks to support increased demand and investing in low-carbon flexible generation such as pumped hydro storage and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
This investment figure followed the company detailing a £12.5 billion by 2026 investment plan in November 2021.
SSE is also committed to supporting the UK in achieving several renewable and net zero targets as a means to boost the ecosystem in the nation. This includes scaling its offshore wind capacity to achieve 20% of the total 50GW wind target.
Alongside this, SSE is targeting 20% of the UK’s planned electricity network investment which it indicated is crucial for the transportation of clean energy across the UK. Solar and battery storage will additionally be scaled with the firm committed to creating a portfolio featuring multi-gigawatts in capacity.
