Global Energy chair Roy MacGregor on £350m Nigg cable plant: ‘The opportunity is here and we’ve got to embrace it’
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Attending the groundbreaking of Sumitomo Electric’s new state-of-the-art power cable factory in Easter Ross yesterday, Global Energy chairman Roy MacGregor has urged Highland people to “embrace” the opportunity the new facility can bring to the area.
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Speaking at the event, he said: “If you need evidence that we are starting a new industry and that transition is happening, you look across there and see vessels that have been dealing with fossil fuels and you see a new industry side by side, and that transition has been happening for ten years.
“In many ways, today is just the culmination of something that will grow pace and will engender Highland people within this area to go and be part of.
“I was here 50 years ago in the oil and gas industry. It changed the face of the Highlands and it gave hope, prosperity and opportunity to Highland people. I think we’ve turned the clock back 50 years. It will be different, but the opportunity is here and we’ve got to embrace it.
“From nurseries, to schools, to colleges, we need to make sure people believe its real and that its happening on their doorstep.
“Our economy in Scotland and the UK is not in a clever place just now. We’ve got to find money to improve our services, in health and education, and the only way to do that is to get GDP up.
“That means people paying more taxes, as individuals and corporations, so again this is another example of how we can improve our GDP by bringing industry, in particular manufacturing, into this part of the world.”
Sumitomo Electric Industries started work on its state-of-the-art subsea transmission cable factory at Nigg yesterday.
The factory - the first of its kind in the western hemisphere - will supply critical elements for the reinforcement of the UK electricity transmission grid and for connecting renewable energy production facilities to the grid.
It is expected to be ready for commissioning in 2026.
