Scots firms urged to seize share of £750bn offshore wind boom

THE global offshore wind market will outperform previous forecasts and grow into a £750 billion industry by 2030, according to a ground-breaking report.

Scottish renewable firms are well placed to seize a large slice of the 250 gigawatt (GW) global sector if they export the skills and knowledge honed over decades in the North Sea oil and gas industry, according to the research from Aim-listed SeaEnergy.

China is expected to offer particularly strong export opportunities for Scots firms which are currently "ahead of the game" in developing technology around offshore wind farms.

Previous reports have put a figure on market expansion over the next decade but according to Niall Stuart, head of trade body Scottish Renewables, this latest research is the first to offer a full picture on how the market is likely to develop over the next 20 years.

"This report for the first time quantifies the size of the potential international market for offshore wind," Stuart said. "It shows that there are enormous overseas opportunities for Scottish businesses that can optimise design, installation and operation processes, ahead of the demand in countries with similar engineering challenges, such as greater water depths."

The world's first offshore wind farms currently only account for some 2GW of energy generation but this is expected to grow rapidly from 2015 onwards to reach 70GW by 2020 and 250GW by 2030.

Allan MacAskill, business development director of Sea- Energy, said the UK and European market is by far the most mature in the world, meaning Scots firms will be able to export their experience and technology to other countries which are still at the early stages of development.

He also countered suggestions that Scotland had missed the boat on the manufacture of wind turbines.

Although Germany and Denmark dominate the onshore turbine manufacturing market, MacAskill said offshore devices are far heavier and are therefore likely to be made closer to home.

It is believed a number of Scots manufacturing firms are on the cusp of announcing contracts to build offshore wind towers.

"We may have missed the boat on onshore but offshore is effectively just starting," said MacAskill. "We will see the advent of (wind turbine] manufacturing in the UK."

The report, produced for the Scottish Government but seen by Scotland on Sunday, names China and the Far East as the next major market in offshore development. The three biggest markets are expected to be in the UK and Europe, America and China.

Stuart said the fact that Scotland already had companies such as Weir Group, Petrofac and Wood Group in China and the USA was significant.