Sir Keir Starmer hails 'incredible opportunity' as he sets out renewable energy plans on visit to Wick
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Sir Keir Starmer said he was struck by the sense of pride among the Beatrice offshore wind farm workforce as he set out plans to double the number of UK renewable energy jobs under a Labour government.
The party leader described renewables as "an incredible opportunity" for cheaper bills and energy independence as he toured the Beatrice operations and maintenance base at Wick harbour this morning before being taken out in a crew transfer vessel for a close-up view of the wind farm itself.
He also highlighted how effectively skills from the oil and gas sector can be transferred to renewable power.
Sir Keir was accompanied by former party leader Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net-zero, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Colin Smyth, the Scottish Labour spokesperson on energy.
Beatrice is operated by SSE Renewables on behalf of a joint venture partnership.
The £2.5 billion wind farm off the east coast of Caithness was completed in 2019, providing work for about 90 staff. The 84 turbines have a capacity of 588MW.
After being shown around the Beatrice base within restored Thomas Telford buildings on Wick's Harbour Quay, Sir Keir said: “It's a very impressive facility and we've met a number of staff here who are very skilled in what they're doing – whether that's control room, or whether that's servicing, and then obviously there's the maintenance team out at sea.
"This is very much part of Labour's plans. We see renewables not as an obligation but as an incredible opportunity for cheaper bills, for energy independence and for the jobs of the future – and that's what we are seeing here.
“We are here really to see that in operation, and to understand and talk to the teams here about how we can take this on. We've got a mission for clean energy, clean power, by 2030 which is ambitious, difficult, but it will be projects like this that will help us deliver it.”
Sir Keir said the focus would be on both onshore and onshore wind, across the UK.
“The race is on now for renewables and we need to be in that race. I think we can win that race," he said. "And for Scotland the reward is obviously the cheaper energy but also those skilled jobs.
“One of the issues we picked up this morning is the need for more skilled jobs here in Wick. They're desperate to get more people in, and that is a good news story.
“We've spoken to a number of people here, particularly in the control room, who have transitioned from oil and gas and obviously we've asked them how transferable the skills are and how long it takes to adapt. And the general read-out is that the skills are pretty comparable, so you can do the transition, which is really good in terms of carrying people into renewables.”
Last autumn, Sir Keir announced that a Labour government would create a publicly owned clean generation company called Great British Energy, ensuring that the British people would derive the benefits from renewable power. He pledged that Labour would deliver a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.
“We've been focusing on renewables for some time now," Sir Keir said in Wick. "The strong sense is – and we've heard it here today – what you really need is a government, here in Scotland and in Westminster, that is committed, that is clear, that is strategic, competent, and has got an integrated plan that brings everything together. Not only the long-term plan for renewables, the offshore wind turbines, but also the supply chains that are needed.
"There is a real sense that we could do far better on that and the skills that need to go with it.
“And so having an incoming Labour government that's going to be strategic, that's going to work in a partnership, that's going to co-invest but is also going to make it an absolute mission to get to clean power generation by 2030, allows us I think to say we can see the future of Scotland here and we can build on this – working with not only SSE here but many others across Scotland.
“There's a strong sense of pride, identity, the future, high skills, secure jobs, because these are jobs that are going to be here for a very long time. These are not jobs that are here for four five years and then it'll be something else.
"And they're highly skilled, whether you're in the control room or looking at the technology behind the turbines.”
The Labour team and some media representatives were taken out in the crew transfer vessel Seacat Rainbow to see the wind farm, which is 13km from the Caithness coastline at its nearest point.
