Will green energy transition really generate manufacturing jobs bonanza at Nigg, Ardersier and across Scotland?
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SCOTLAND needs to do more to ensure the much-trumpeted transition to green energy generates jobs amid claims the failure to create and protect more manufacturing work and supply chains "has become a national embarrassment".
The gauntlet has been laid down by one of the country's biggest trade unions in the week that Nigg and Ardersier both hit the headlines with promises of significant investment.
GMB Scotland says the country "must show far greater ambition and commitment" to seize the economic opportunities of wind power.
It has written to energy secretary Neil Gray asking for urgent talks insisting the transition to renewable energy should be creating skilled jobs and supporting communities.
The union fears the opportunity to increase the country’s manufacturing capacity during the transition from fossil fuels will be missed without more ambition and has called for a far-sighted industrial strategy to ensure wind turbines and other renewables infrastructure are built here.
Mr Gray spent three days in Tokyo and Osaka last week to “take further, tangible steps to realise the economic benefits of Scotland’s position as a renewables powerhouse”.
“We are used to hearing a lot of promises but little detail. So exactly what jobs will be created here and how? More importantly, how many will be created in fabrication yards on the other side of the world.” - Gary Cook
In Japan, he announced Sumitomo Electric is to build a factory in the Highlands to produce cables to connect off-shore wind farms but did not detail the number of jobs to be created.
It has been established that an application relating to the factory has been lodged at Nigg Energy Park by Global Energy Group.
Claims have been made, for example, that the Opportunity Cromarty Firth freeport will create up to 25,000 jobs and attract £2.6 billion in inward investment.
Gary Cook, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser for engineering and manufacturing, said the Sumitomo Electric announcement is welcome but that "Scottish and UK ministers’ failure to create and protect more manufacturing jobs and supply chains during the transition to renewable energy has become a national embarrassment".
He said: “Let’s hope the energy secretary’s trip to Japan was worthwhile but, on all past form, there is little reason for optimism.”
He said recently announced plans for Berwick Bank, one of the world's biggest wind farms proposed off the coast of East Lothian, are only the latest to promise thousands of jobs in Scotland but added: “We are used to hearing a lot of promises but little detail. So exactly what jobs will be created here and how?
“More importantly, how many will be created in fabrication yards on the other side of the world.”
GMB Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to reconsider its opposition to nuclear power and says a mix of secure energy sources, including oil, gas, hydrogen, nuclear and renewables, is needed while the transition from fossil fuels continues.
It has now written to the energy secretary asking for an urgent meeting days after a US investment company committed £300m to redevelop Ardersier port near Inverness to bolster supply chain infrastructure and create a promised 3000 jobs.
Cook said that investment only hints at the scale of the opportunity for Scotland.
He added: “We need a new industrial strategy, an ambitious plan to build manufacturing, attract investment, secure infrastructure, increase training, and seize the opportunity.”
