MacAskill: Scots are being ripped off by energy theft

ALBA Party have hit out at a lack of benefit to Scotland from the country’s ‘renewable windfall as new Subsea cables are approved to send enough renewable energy from Scotland to England to power 7.5 Million homes.

Alba Depute leader Kenny MacAskill says Scot’s are being ‘ripped off’ as companies are profiting from Scotland’s renewable energy but powering Scottish homes and businesses are seeing no benefit.

His comments come as a multi-billion pound subsea cable that can shift vast amounts of renewable electricity between Scotland and England has been given the go-ahead by regulators.

The two 315-mile (507km) cables will run from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire to Drax in North Yorkshire and will initially work alongside a similar link down the west coast.

Although the link can carry electricity in both direction, the majority is expected to flow out of Scotland.

A new converter station is being built close to Peterhead power station from where high voltage direct current cables will be laid on the seabed.
The cables will hit land near Bridlington in East Yorkshire where they will be buried underground to Drax and connected into the national grid.
The connection will be large enough to carry enough renewable electricity to power two million homes.

The project will be the first of four subsea electricity links planned along the east coast with the eventual capacity capable of powering 7.5 million homes in England using electricity generated in Scotland.

The approval is likely to be quickly followed by a further link connecting Torness in East Lothian with Seaham in County Durham.

The two initial projects are expected to be followed by connections between Peterhead and Lincolnshire and then between Kinghorn in Fife and Norfolk.

They will work alongside the Western Green Link which runs between Hunterston in Ayrshire and the Flintshire Bridge on the border between England and Wales. Since opening in 2017, the 240 mile cable has transmitted more than 23,000 GWh of green energy from Ayrshire in its first five years.

Commenting Alba Party Depute leader Kenny MacAskill said:

“We are witnessing a massive transfer of renewable energy resources, from offshore wind, from Scotland to England, without any economic revenues, major manufacturing or supply chain jobs coming to Scotland.

“Scots are being ‘ripped off’. Our massive wind energy resource is being cabled south, from under our noses. Meanwhile, the companies rake in the profits and our people are forced to pay sky-high energy bills or go cold.

“This massive renewable energy windfall should be powering Scottish homes and businesses, while at the same time putting Scotland in a prime position to amass additional revenues by exporting excess energy south.

“There has been a change of government, but thus far we have seen no change in policy: Scotland’s enormous resources are exploited while Scots families are seeing their fuel bills go through the roof.

"At the same time, we are expected to accept the perversity that is the closure of Scotland's only oil refinery at Grangemouth. Labour needs to support the ‘extend, invest and transition’ policy of the stewards and Unite the Union.

“If Ineos insist on closing Grangemouth, the UK government must turn off the tap of support for their new plant in Antwerp. Why should millions be given to a corporation to invest in a foreign land if they’re harming this country’s economy and community?

“Labour now needs to deliver - not a penny for Antwerp if Grangemouth shuts.”