Scotland’s enormous potential for renewable energy could turn the country into a literal European powerhouse and generate immense revenues for an independent Scotland as well as giving Scotland some of the cheapest electricity in Europe, which in turn could generate huge inward investment as companies seek to build factories in Scotland, taking advantage of low energy prices, creating jobs and wealth in Scottish communities.
Yet Scotland is losing out on jobs and investment in the transition to clean energy. The forests of massive wind turbines which cover increasingly large tracts of Scotland’s hills and moors and are anchored off our coasts are largely manufactured overseas and shipped in to Scotland. Scotland currently lacks local manufacturing facilities for the highest-value parts of wind turbines, such as the nacelles (the housing sitting atop the tower that contains the generator and gearbox), consequently the Scottish wind sector is heavily dependent on imported material. The wind power sector is heavily capital intensive when it comes to generation. Prospects for jobs and exports in the sector lie in manufacturing.
Although Scotland has experienced a world-leading transformation in terms of wind generation over the last decade and a half, regularly generating more electricity than the country needs for domestic consumption from wind, this has not been matched in terms of the industrial benefits which might have been expected, mostly due to disappointing levels of manufacturing job creation and to the fact that UK energy policy is determined by Westminster which structures the market in order to ensure that producers of electricity generated by gas determine the price of electricity. This means that the lower cost of wind generated electricity is not passed on to consumers. Scotland thus loses out two ways and receives little to no benefit from its enormous renewable energy resources.
There were hopes that the dearth of wind turbine manufacturing in Scotland could begin to be remedied when the Chinese company Ming Yang announced last year that it had plans to build the UK’s largest wind turbine manufacturing facility in Scotland. A spokesperson for the company claimed the project would involve investment of up to £1.5 billion, creating as many as 1,500 jobs. A number of sites in Scotland had been shortlisted for the factory, with Ardersier in the Highlands identified as the preferred option.
However these hopes were dashed after the Labour government in Westminster blocked the plans, citing national security concerns. In January, Ming Yang’s head of UK and European operations Aman Wang said the company had a “shortlist of ports” lined up if the Ardersier site was not approved, adding that “the five are on the continent”. The jobs will now go to EU countries and Scotland once again loses out thanks to Westminster.
Security concerns have not proven an insurmountable issue when it comes to Chinese investment in certain projects in England which on the face of it would appear to be more sensitive than the construction of wind turbines.
Significant Chinese investments in UK infrastructure include a 10% stake in London’s Heathrow airport by the China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund wholly owned by the Chinese state. The Hong Kong-based industrialist Li Ka-shing’s investment group owns UK Power Networks,which operates electricity distribution infrastructure across London, the South East of England and the East of England. There is also a large Chinese investment in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset.
This year, Labour government ministers have approved the construction a massive new Chinese embassy in London despite intelligence agencies saying they cannot eliminate the risks to national security. It is feared that the new embassy would provide a base for Chinese spying and security crackdowns against dissident Chinese citizens in the UK.
There are also concerns that the basement of the new embassy is uncomfortably close to internet trunk cabling carrying highly sensitive financial information to and from the City of London.
It now transpires that the Westminster government has never informed the Scottish Government of the reasons why it blocked the Ardersier development. This week Scottish Culture Secretary Mairi McAllan said she and her SNP colleagues had not been allowed a “proper understanding” of the UK Government’s decision to prevent renewables giant Ming Yang from building a wind turbine factory at the site near Inverness.
Former Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills Vince Cable has condemned the decision to block the Ming Yang development as “folly” and has said he sympathised with First Minister John Swinney’s claim that the decision was a Westminster attempt to sabotage Scotland’s industrial future and energy independence and suggested that the real motivation for Westminster’s refusal to authorise the project was an unwillingness on the part of Labour ministers to “align with the SNP”.
With this decision following on from Labour’s shameful betrayal of the Grangemouth workers and the closure of Scotland’s only refinery, rendering oil producing Scotland entirely dependent on imports of refined petroleum products, it’s difficult not to wonder if the Westminster government’s real concerns about national security are not in fact concerns about China at all, but national security concerns about Scotland, having rather more to do with preventing Scotland from becoming prosperous and energy independent, which would strengthen the case for independence in a country where support for independence regularly tops 50% in opinion polling.
The prospect of Scottish independence represents a much more immediate and existential threat to the British state than China does. Scottish independence would deprive the UK of its nuclear bases on the Clyde and at a stroke would remove a huge chunk of the UK’s domestic energy production and resources. Scotland functions as a net exporter of electricity to the rest of the UK, sending roughly 35% of its generated power (nearly 20 TWh in recent annual reporting) south to England and Northern Ireland. With Scotland independent the rest of the UK would have to pay Scotland international market rates for all that energy. Does anyone honestly believe that Westminster is not prepared to lie, cheat and deceive in order to prevent that happening?
At the very least Labour’s decision comes across as an attempt to punish and penalise Scotland for not voting in a manner which is to the liking of the Westminster parties. In either case it is clear that Westminster does not make decisions with Scotland’s best interests in mind, decisions are made in the narrow party political interests of the Westminster parties and if that means depriving Scotland of 1500 jobs and the ability to supply its own wind energy sector with the equipment it needs, then the Labour party is quite OK with that. Whatever way you look at it it’s abundantly clear that Scotland is being held back by a Westminster which does not have Scotland’s interests at heart.
There is a real threat to national security here. With its imposition of Brexit, the alarming way its media pushes far right politics, its theft of Scottish energy and what can only be called an attempt to prevent the development of Scottish industry, it’s Westminster which is a threat to Scotland’s national security.
After wrestling for hours with PayPal, I have finally compiled a list of the emails of almost everyone who makes a regular monthly donation to the blog and will soon launch the weekly bonus premium email article for those who make a monthly contribution to the blog. I had hoped to launch this in June but unfortunately it will be delayed for a while. There are a number of people whose emails I am unable to find. Some people donate monthly by Ko-Fi, one makes a monthly donation to last year’s GoFundMe fundraiser, a few people make monthly payments directly by bank transfer. I cannot access the email addresses of any of these people and so cannot add them to the new mailing list. If you are one of these folk, please email me at weegingerbook@yahoo.com and I’ll add you to the mailing list.
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