Wind power centre will keep Scotland in vanguard of renewable energy

Peter Jones

Glasgow secured a major jobs boost yesterday with the announcement by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) that 300 jobs are to be created over the next three years in a new research and management centre for wind farm projects.
The £20 million project also marks a significant step forward in Scotland’s growing research capabilities into renewable energy, which now encompass several hundred scientists and engineers.
SSE said it was joining with the University of Strathclyde, a recognised centre for wind energy, to build a new centre for renewable energy engineering excellence in Glasgow.
The centre, which also safeguards 70 existing SSE jobs in renewable energy, will manage the development, design, engineering, project management, procurement and asset monitoring of SSE’s portfolio of onshore and offshore wind farms in Europe.

The company is in the second year of a five-year programme to invest £3 billion in renewable energy projects by 2013.
Ian Marchant, SSE’s chief executive, said the company had searched throughout Europe for the best site. Glasgow had helped its case, he said, because of the city council’s ambition to make Glasgow Europe’s most sustainable city in 10 years’ time.
While a substantial part of the centre’s work will be in managing the engineering of new wind farms, a significant part will also be devoted to making wind energy systems more efficient and robust, and to researching wave and tidal energy systems.
SSE is already Britain’s largest generator of electricity from renewable sources and, Mr Marchant said: “Scotland’s ambition to become a leader in renewable energy is well known and we are delighted to be making this investment in Scotland.”
The centre adds to a growing list of such research facilities in Scotland ranging from the marine energy research site in Orkney, several alternative energy projects in Aberdeen, to a carbon capture and storage research centre in Edinburgh.
Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, a trade body, said: “Offshore wind will become a multi-billion pound global industry over the next few years. This announcement represents a significant expansion of Scotland’s technical expertise in this area, and is another important step towards creating and keeping high value engineering jobs.”
The Scottish government is helping with the cost of the project with a £2.8 million subsidy from regional selective assistance funds.