THE Scottish Government has welcomed investment worth just under £5 million from Great British Energy for eco-friendly power projects.
The UK Government-owned firm will give the Scottish Government £4.85m in one of its first moves since its creation – as ministers announced plans to install solar panels on schools and hospitals across England.
It will be for the Scottish Government to spend the money and Alasdair Allan (below), an acting energy minister in Holyrood, said the money would support “community energy” and “decarbonisation” projects across the country.
He said: “This is a welcome announcement. Communities are at the heart of Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions and community energy will play a pivotal role in a just energy transition.
“The £5m funding, on top of our investment of £9m to scale up community energy and community building decarbonisation projects across Scotland, will support communities to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition.
“The Scottish Government will continue to work with partners to grow the community energy sector. We want to ensure that the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland, as well as supporting progress towards net zero.”
Ian Murray (below), the Scottish Secretary, said the money would “benefit communities across Scotland”.
He added: “Working alongside the Scottish Government we are backing local clean energy projects to help bring bills down while creating economic growth across the country.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Together with Great British Energy, we’re putting power back into the hands of the Scottish people by giving communities a stake in their energy supply and ensuring they can reap the benefits.
“This is our clean energy superpower mission in action, with lower bills and energy security for our country.”
We revealed previously that the state-owned firm currently has no employees.
It reportedly experienced difficulty appointing a chief executive, eventually securing RenewablesUK director Dan McGrail for a six-month secondment.
Juergen Maier (below), GB Energy chair, previously admitted it could take as long as 20 years to create 1000 new jobs through the company.
The company had been promised £8.3bn in taxpayer money over the five-year parliament, but was only given an initial £100mn in October’s Budget to cover the first two years.
Ahead of the spending review, ministers are now considering whether they can afford to give GB Energy the promised £8.3bn amid a pivot towards greater defence spending, according to the Financial Times.
Its first board meeting was held in Aberdeen earlier this week.
