Highlands & Islands Awards partner blog: Stromar

Charting a Greener Horizon: Nurturing Expertise for the Offshore Wind Revolution

Harnessing the power of offshore wind offers huge benefits to Scotland, both in terms of achieving the Government’s net zero targets, transitioning away from fossil fuels and creating significant inward investment for the Scottish economy. Over the next ten years up to 30 gigawatts of new offshore wind could be installed off the Scottish coastline – more than enough to power the equivalent of over 25 million homes with cleaner, green energy.

Located off the coast of Caithness, around 50 km east of Wick, our 1GW Stromar floating project is expected to be operational by the end of this decade. We have already established a large team in Scotland dedicated to pioneering innovative new technology that can be delivered at scale whilst stimulating a robust local supply chain and sustaining thousands of new jobs during construction.

A recent report by the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) predicts a significant increase in highly skilled jobs in the UK offshore wind sector, with the figure set to reach more than 100,000 by 2030. This means there is no time to waste in attracting and securing the next generation of talent into the sector and ensuring we have the right people with the right skills, ready to construct the new wave of commercial scale floating offshore wind farms.

We are partners in the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, a transformational opportunity not just for the Highlands but for Scotland as a whole. As part of our involvement in the Green Freeport we are board members of the PowerHouse, the new applied research centre dedicated to developing floating offshore wind and green hydrogen technologies which brings together academia and industry to deliver the training programmes needed to provide a skilled workforce.

We’re also supporting activities for school pupils across the North and North East through organisations such as Techfest, to encourage young people’s interest in STEM subjects from an early age, inspiring them to pursue careers in renewable energy and securing Scotland’s future role as a centre of excellence for floating offshore wind technology.