UK/Scotland: Scotwind – huge opportunity for Finnish companies in offshore wind supply chain

In the 2021, the UK government set the target of installing 40GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, which was further increased to 50GW in 2022. Scotland has even more ambitious climate targets than the UK as a whole - one of the toughest targets in the world: 75% emissions reduction by 2030, and 50% of Scotland’s total energy demand to be supplied by renewable energy sources. The ScotWind, announced by Crown Estate Scotland, is aiming to make it possible for Scotland to reach its targets written in the Islands Act, 2018. The ScotWind provides a huge opportunity for the supply chain.

The ScotWind has altogether 20 projects, totaling up to 27.6 gigawatt, and with initial supply chain commitments indicating an average of £1.4 billion investment in Scotland per gigawatt of capacity built. It is the first Scottish offshore wind investment in over a decade, and the first ever since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland. ScotWind offers opportunities for years to come as the projects need to go through different stages, and, when further development of the offshore wind technology will take place.

Alongside the wind farm projects, also the ports in the UK, including Scotland will need reinforcement and investment to adequately service the volume, and size, of equipment which will be going through them. Last but not least, re-engineering the electricity and gas networks in Scotland and in the whole UK, to decarbonise the energy that flows through them is a major challenge. New and potentially 'disruptive technologies' are believed to contribute strongly to decarbonisation such as energy storage, electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles and the use of hydrogen or biofuels for heating. National Grid has set out the Pathway to 2030 investment plan for a single, integrated approach to supporting the large scale rollout of offshore wind and its connection to the transmission network in the UK, and there is similar devolved plan for Scotland.

Opportunities for Finnish companies with expertise in e.g.

• ICT / Connectivity; including Cutting-edge solutions in Wireless, IoT and Weather monitoring
• The Energy and Storage offerings; including Holistic energy system integration, Batteries as storage systems, Sustainable power solutions, Monitoring and maintaining of the structures condition
• The Maritime/Ports sector; including Solutions for offshore wind park design, manufacturing, construction, installation and maintenance, Port infrastructure and logistics, Digital solutions for more efficient port operation, Solutions for emission reductions / life cycle assessments (LCA)
• R&D opportunities

In collaboration with the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and the Department for Business and Trade, Business Finland is organising a Finnish trade mission to Scotland from the 3rd – 6th of October 2023.

The purpose of the trade mission is for the Finnish delegation to learn about Scottish wind energy projects and identify collaboration opportunities with Scottish companies within the themes outlined above. This will provide the Scottish supply chain with the opportunity to learn about the Finnish wind offering. A key objective is to build business partnerships between the Finnish and Scottish supply chains to work together on the ScotWind opportunity.

Registration by 30 August 2023: Trade Mission to Scotland.