Chamber and committees

Absolutely. I do not see why not.

I would absolutely be open to considering that. It is important that we continue to learn from international best practice. You will be aware that, during the Scottish National Party leadership contest, the now First Minister was in favour of greater community or state ownership in energy production, which is something that he and I share an interest in. I would be happy to consider what more might be possible going forward along the lines of Monica Lennon’s suggestion.

Hydro power has huge potential to ensure a consistent supply of renewable energy into the system. There is more work to be done to ensure that the grid capacity can cope with that and that the consenting regime is appropriate to ensure that projects get off the ground quickly enough. We have a large potential, particularly for pumped hydro storage, and we hope that the UK Government will listen to the requests that have been made around ensuring that the process is as smooth as possible.

I will need to come back to the committee with more detail on that.

As Mr Kerr will be aware, the base-load requirements and ensuring that there is energy security to supply the grid are the responsibility of the electricity system operator. However, we are confident about the potential of the renewables that we have discussed—onshore and offshore wind, our pumped hydro storage capabilities, our green hydrogen capabilities, and the tidal renewable opportunities that are coming forward. The tide goes in and out twice a day, and it gives very clear and certain energy capacity. We have a huge opportunity to meet the demand that will come from Scotland’s consumers.

I have already set out in my introductory remarks the opportunity that renewables production will give us by 2030 and 2045, in generation potentially being double and treble the demand from Scottish consumers.

We are working with the enterprise agencies not only on ensuring that we have a good supply chain for manufacturing the items and components that will be needed but on ensuring that they are supporting domestic and inward investment opportunities and that all of this potential is well serviced. I will make sure that we write to the committee with further information on the work that is being done with the agencies.

I do not think that it is necessarily about honesty, because I do not think that it is necessarily a bad thing and we should not view it as such. It is about ensuring that people have as much information as possible about the scale of the infrastructure that is going to be required and the demonstrable benefit that will come off the back of that to us all through our having a decarbonised network and meeting our net zero obligations. I am more than happy to take that away and look at it in more detail.

I will bring in Claire Jones to answer that question.

We have good news on that front. Recently, I was in Japan to meet the board of Sumitomo Electric, which is coming forward with a large-scale inward investment project to build a factory for the production of high-voltage cables for Scotland’s offshore renewables industry. It is the first in what I hope will be a long line of inward investment opportunities that will result in much better domestic production in the supply chain, particularly with regard to the offshore wind industry. We want to see not only jobs growth here in Scotland but a well-serviced supply chain that allows the opportunities that we have in renewables to come through.