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ETZ Ltd CEO, Maggie McGinlay, discusses Repositioning the North East of Scotland as the Net-zero Energy Capital of Europe

ETZ Ltd CEO, Maggie McGinlay, discusses Repositioning the North East of Scotland as the Net-zero Energy Capital of Europe

 

All of us who live in North East of Scotland are acutely aware how reliant our economy has been on a world-class oil and gas sector. For almost 50 years the region has made a massive contribution to the UK’s economic productivity and energy requirements and, in doing so, has sustained thousands of jobs in and across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

The industry is now maturing, and, in the context of an unprecedented climate emergency, there are widespread calls from government and industry for energy transition activities to be accelerated.  It is sobering to reflect that the UK oil and gas industry lost around 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in the last 18 months, many of which were across the North-East, so the scale of challenge is stark.

We want to harness the skills and experience of those 50 years and put it towards a world leading hub for renewables energies – offshore wind, green and blue hydrogen, carbon capture and storage– creating a long term and sustainable industry base that allows the North-East to re-position itself as the net-zero energy capital of Europe.

This is exactly what ETZ Ltd, the not-for-profit organisation I’m privileged to lead, has been established to do. We operate on the basis of no commercial gain and with one over-riding goal; to protect and create as many jobs as possible ensuring a sustainable and vibrant future for the North East and the people who live and work here.

The Energy Transition Zone is a vital project that will allow Aberdeen and the North East to achieve this ambition. The reality, however, is that we face stiff competition from ports around the UK and rest of Europe who are trying to emulate our plans but I’m very clear that we cannot and must not let Aberdeen lose out on this. If we were to, we should truly fear for the future of the city and region.

We are progressing at pace to ensure this doesn’t happen and work is already underway to repurpose and refurbish key locations within the existing industrial sites in Aberdeen which will be at the heart of the thriving cluster within the Energy Transition Zone.
Critical to the Zone’s success will be our ability to attract specialist high-value manufacturing to support the massive opportunity the ScotWind leasing round provides.

The Crown Estate decision to approve developments that will generate 24.8GW of offshore wind power, a significant increase on the anticipated 11GW, is hugely encouraging and it’s great to see the Scottish Government’s recognition of the sheer scale of the opportunity before us.

18GW of power announced, representing over 70% of all successful bids, are within 100 nautical miles of Aberdeen and therefore this region is ideally placed to become a globally recognised hub supporting the high value manufacturing, operations and maintenance and innovation required to deliver these developments at pace.

The Energy Transition Zone will also be home to a brand new National Floating Offshore Wind Innovation Centre allowing the North East to harness its first mover credentials and maximise the significant floating offshore wind opportunity. This is particularly important given the massive 14.6GW of floating offshore wind power announced.

The scale of the offshore wind opportunity is a key reason why we are taking forward the development of the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) adjacent to the brand new £400 million Aberdeen South Harbour, one of the largest marine projects in the UK.

And there are other major opportunities for this region too. A joint venture between Aberdeen City Council and bp, will see bp operate a hub incorporating solar power, green hydrogen production and a refuelling facility for public transport as part of the City’s City aim to become a world-class hydrogen hub. In addition, the oil & gas geology off the North East coast provides world-class sites for large scale carbon dioxide storage.

To accelerate the development of this wide range of exciting opportunities, ETZ Ltd is facilitating the faster development of the Scottish energy supply chain cluster which will be   drawing on the largest concentration of energy supply chain companies in the UK from our oil and gas history. This, along with 75% of the world’s subsea engineering capability, will undoubtedly make the North East one of the most attractive locations in Europe for investment in low carbon technologies. 

The region has all the right ingredients for success. We have the knowledge and expertise, the financial capital, the offshore infrastructure, and we have a stellar record in delivering offshore solutions.

Owing to our proud heritage as a global leader in oil and gas, we have all the tools at our disposal to become a global leader in new energies, significantly contributing to economic diversification across the region and meeting Net-Zero targets.

By Maggie McGinlay
Chief Executive Offficer
ETZ Ltd

ETZ Ltd is a private sector led, not for profit company created to drive forward the vision of transforming the North East of Scotland to become a global leader in energy transition activities and a net exporter of energy transition technologies and skills. Learn more at etzltd.com

Published: 08-04-2022

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