ENERGY giant SSE is making a bid to ramp up growth in the windfarm market off Scotland significantly in a move it expects will provide a boost to the supply chain, which would be badly-needed.

Chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies said the Scottish Hydroelectric owner hopes to be one of the big winners in the forthcoming ScotWind licensing round, which covers huge swathes of the seabed off the country.

“We’ll bid in a number of areas,” Mr Phillips-Davies told journalists, adding: “I very much hope we will be successful as we’re currently probably the most successful offshore wind builder in Scotland.”

Perth-based SSE finished development work on the giant Beatrice windfarm off Caithness in 2019. It is currently working on the Seagreen windfarm off the Angus coast. This will be Scotland’s biggest windfarm when it is completed.

The company came under fire after selecting operations based outside Scotland to produce turbines used on windfarms in the country.

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However SSE has insisted its investment in renewables has helped generate lots of work for firms in Scotland, with resulting benefits for the jobs market.

Mr Phillips-Davies defended the company’s record yesterday.

He said: “I see it as a big differentiator for SSE, our ability to try and bring more of the supply chain into the UK; that will certainly be part of our bid on ScotWind, is about how we’re going to support Scotland and support the supply chain in Scotland and the wider UK.”

By way of example, Mr Phillips Davies noted: “We obviously got the announcement at Teesside earlier this year to get a blade factory built there by GE and we’re working on a number of similar opportunities.”

The factory concerned will create or support around 2,000 jobs. It will produce blades for the Dogger Bank windfarm that SSE is developing off North East England.

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Scotland has not enjoyed the kind of boost to the economy that was expected given the potential to produce renewable energy in the country.

The Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) business fell into administration in December after failing to win the kind of work associated with windfarm developments off Scotland that some hoped it would.

After acquiring BiFab’s site in Methil in Fife, Infrastata won a contract to provide foundations that will be used on the Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm project in the Outer Firth of Forth. This is being developed by EDF Renewables and ESB. The contract win is expected to result in around 300 jobs being created in Methil.

In its annual results announcement, SSE said it was providing important support for the drive to achieve net zero in the UK while helping to power the recovery of the economy from the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis.

The group’s chairman Sir John Manzoni said: “We are reducing emissions, investing in a green recovery, creating over a thousand new jobs, making a major contribution to GDP and, financially, continuing to remunerate shareholders through delivery of our dividend plan.”

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The group plans to invest around £2 billion this year in the development of renewable energy assets and related networks under a programme that will involve total spending of £7.5bn to 2025.

Mr Phillips-Davies said SSE expected to become a significant force in emerging markets such as carbon capture and storage and hydrogen fuel production and saw opportunities overseas, in countries such as the USA, Japan and in Europe.

SSE increased underlying profits before tax by four per cent annually to £1.06bn in the year to March 31.

The impact of the coronavirus wiped around £170 million off profits, against an expected £200m. The group saw demand for energy from business customers fall and bad debts increase.

SSE plans to sell its 33% stake in the SGN gas networks business this year. It sold its household energy supply business to Ovo in January last year, in a deal worth £500m, to focus on renewable power generation and related infrastructure.

READ MORE: SSE set to offload stake in Scottish gas networks business

The group declared a final dividend of 56.6p taking the full year total to 81p, in line with its plan to increase dividend payments in line with inflation in each of the five years to 2023. Shares in SSE closed down 8p at 1542p.

A spokesperson for SSE’s Renewables operation said the group had begun construction on three major windfarm projects in Scotland since the start of 2020, citing Seagreen and the Viking and Gordonbush Extension onshore windfarms, which are in Shetland and Sutherland respectively.

He said: “These low carbon projects are powering a green, economic recovery right now through their support of more than 1,000 high value green jobs in Scotland, including direct, contractor and supply chain roles.

“These include 141 skilled construction jobs at Global Energy Group’s Port of Nigg in Tain, of which 48 are new roles being created, to support the delivery of Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm, as well as an expected 400 construction jobs at peak on the delivery of our Viking project.”