Scottish National Investment Bank invests £20m into Aurora Energy Services to boost renewables pipeline

Renewable energy service provider latest firm to be boosted by state-backed bank.

From left: Aurora CEO Douglas Duguid and SNIB executive director Jimmy Williamson. Picture: Michal Wachucik/Abermedia.

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) has continued its run of funding announcements with the news that it is providing up to £20 million to a renewable energy service provider to help supply a pipeline of reskilled workers and apprentices to drive forward Scotland’s journey to net zero. It will also help it seal international acquisitions.

Aurora Energy Services says the boost from the state-backed lender will allow it to bolster and expand its network of regional training hubs and workshop facilities key to supporting the green energy supply chain, servicing projects right across the renewables sector, including wind, solar, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, as well as pumped hydro and waste to energy.

Its strategy will capitalise on existing experience in the oil and gas sector and reskill workers to support the energy transition, with the firm planning to develop a globally recognised apprenticeship scheme. Aurora in addition recently opened a Renewable Energy Training Centre in Inverness, complementing bases it has in Aberdeen, Wick and Huntly.

Chief executive Douglas Duguid said the funding boost “will enhance our recruitment of people living and working in rural Scotland and allow us to be able to offer more job and training opportunities in a shorter timeframe”.

He added: "The wind sector is an important part of Aurora’s future expansion plans, but other renewable technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and pumped hydro are also key. The Bank’s support means we can speed up our strategic expansion in those areas. We are a Scottish business, firmly rooted in the Highlands but with an international footprint, and the [SNIB’s] backing will be an important factor as we close in on other international acquisitions which are in the pipeline.”

The investment has been part-financed by the Just Transition Fund, allocated to the SNIB from the Scottish Government last year, and the lender says that since its establishment in 2020, it has provided more than £100m into businesses supporting the energy transition. It also recently injected £6m into drug discovery accelerator Cumulus Oncology.

Jimmy Williamson, executive director at the SNIB, said: “Aurora’s remit to develop new talent and retrain workers who already have deep, critical energy sector knowledge is a vital link in realising the potential before us.”