Wind Week is a great opportunity to celebrate everything we do as a renewables business and showcase how working to deliver a cleaner, greener and better future, quicker benefits us all.
 

2022 has been a very positive year for ScottishPower Renewables so far.

We started the year with a major boost to our offshore pipeline, with incredible success in Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind Leasing – winning the rights to develop three new offshore windfarms in Scottish waters. This includes two floating wind projects with Shell, which could become the first commercial-scale floating windfarms in the world.

The Secretary of State then granted Development Consent Orders for our East Anglia ONE North and East Anglia TWO offshore windfarm projects, before we secured Contracts for Difference (CfDs) for 16 renewable energy projects across Scotland, England and Wales.

For the first time, this included onshore wind CfD projects as well as our East Anglia THREE offshore windfarm, which began construction in the summer.

What we’ve achieved in the last ten months has contributed to an unrivalled 20GW pipeline of onshore wind, solar and offshore wind projects across the UK and Ireland, complementing our operational portfolio of almost 3GW of renewable energy.

Collectively, this gives us a solid platform from which we can tackle the climate emergency head-on and drive down carbon emissions, address energy security concerns and respond to the cost-of-living crisis all at once.

I’m acutely aware that delivering on these ambitions is only possible thanks to the talented, passionate and committed colleagues throughout our business who I’m lucky to work with every day.

We’re also going to need a lot more people to support our efforts as we move forward and that creates a whole host of exciting opportunities for people looking for green jobs and for those who want to make the transition from other industries. Getting the right people in place is key.

As part of ScottishPower, we will be directly recruiting many of the 1,000 people who will be taken on over the next year to help deliver a greener, more self-sufficient future. There will be roles all the way from entry level to executive, and many, many exciting projects and opportunities for them to be involved in.

Renewables is at the heart of a transformation that will touch on every aspect of our lives – how we heat our homes, how we get around, how we work. It’s a privilege to be part of that journey and to be able to give others the chance to get involved.

I’m proud to lead such a fantastic and committed team and look forward to seeing that team continue to grow as we realise the benefits of wind power and renewable energy for our people, our places and our planet.

As we mark Wind Week 2022, all I can say is that – for me – renewables is definitely the place to be!