The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council has appointed industry leader Gillian Noble – who heads up ScottishPower’s offshore development and operations – as Chair of its vital Developer Group.
SOWEC plays an important role supporting growth of the offshore wind sector in Scotland, and works through a number of groups to drive action. Its Developer Group plays an important role in bringing offshore wind developers together to work with the Scottish Government on shared challenges.
In leading this work, Gillian brings over 20 years of experience in energy, and as Managing Director for Offshore Renewables Development and Operations at ScottishPower Renewables, leads the company’s work on offshore wind projects across the UK and Ireland. This includes ScottishPower Renewables’ three ScotWind projects, as well as a wider portfolio of projects across the UK and Ireland.
Gillian commented: “The Scottish offshore wind pipeline is a critical part of UK and Scottish efforts to decarbonise and grow our economy and strengthen the UK’s energy security. The opportunities that offshore wind offers Scotland are vast and incredibly exciting, but there are a number of challenges and issues to consider such as grid, planning and growing our supply chain.
“These are issues facing all of us in offshore wind, so having the platform for developers to come together as an industry to work in partnership with the Scottish Government is not just welcome, but essential and it’s great that SOWEC is driving this forward.
“I look forward to working with colleagues on the Developer Group to ensure that, as an industry and a country, we do everything we can to make the most of this unprecedented offshore wind pipeline and deliver the clean energy future we all want.”
Brian McFarlane, Industry Co-Chair of SOWEC commented, “It’s great to have Gillian’s expertise and drive to help SOWEC in its work to push ScotWind and the overall Scottish offshore wind pipeline forwards. SOWEC works through partnership, and Gillian is a great person to have on board to help bring industry and government together to secure the opportunity offshore wind offers to Scotland.”
The role of SOWEC’s Developer Group is to focus on key issues to enable the SOWEC Vision and Goals by identifying challenges unique to Scotland, resolving issues and optimising shared objectives. It will seek to resolve any issues through project specific endeavors. To do this it works across other groups looking at barriers such as grid and planning, Skills and Supply Chain to ensure that the views of developers are understood and that they can support wider action to overcome sector challenges.
The membership of the Group comes from senior representatives from all active developers in Scottish waters as well as Scottish Renewables and Scottish Government representatives. The group has a Project Manager to support its work.
