The projects and activities of the UK’s leading clean energy champion, SSE Renewables have resulted in four significant outcomes for Scotland, especially the country’s economy.
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4 important ways SSE Renewables is contributing to Scotland’s economy:
1. Support for more jobs
Around 4,000 jobs in Scotland were supported over the past year thanks to SSE Renewables’ almost £1 billion contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
That contribution was driven by the renewable energy company’s construction and operational activities from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. Those activities were largely geared toward delivering flagship infrastructure projects, like the £580 million Viking onshore windfarm in Shetland and the £3 billion Seagreen project.
Seagreen, which will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, is located off the coast of Angus in the North Sea firth. It’s expected to be fully operational next year. It will be able to produce around 5 terawatt hours of renewable electricity annually, enough to power 1.6 million households.
Independent analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also shows SSE Renewables contributed a total of £1.65 billion to the GDP of its core markets, the UK and Ireland – a 23% increase from the year before. That meant support for over 10,000 jobs – more than double the figure from 2020 to 2021.
2. Higher headcount in SSE Renewables’ home markets
Details of PwC’s study are included in the SSE Renewables Sustainability Report 2022.
The report also highlights significant employment growth at SSE Renewables over the past three years. Between 2020 and 2022, the renewable energy company grew its UK and Ireland headcount by nearly 50%. It now employs more than 1,300 people. Over 1,000 of them are based in Scotland.
3. Greater support for workers moving from high to low-carbon careers
Around 1 in 3 of these employees have transitioned from high-carbon careers, mostly from outside the company. According to a recent survey, key drivers behind this transition include environmental considerations (68%), the opportunity to work on exciting projects (58%), and better long-term career prospects (58%).
In November 2020, SSE plc became the first company in the world to publish a Just Transition Strategy. This strategy outlines 20 principles to promote a fair and just transition for workers, consumers and communities when moving into a net zero world and out of high-carbon activities.
A year later, the World Benchmarking Alliance ranked SSE the top company out of 180 globally, based on its approach to just transition.
4. Stronger push for sustainability
The sustainability report’s publication marks the first time the UK’s leading renewable energy developer, owner and operator has detailed the actions it is taking to put sustainability at the core of its strategy for ambitious growth in the UK, Ireland and overseas.
SSE Renewables’ head of sustainability, Kate Wallace Lockhart said:
These findings provide yet more evidence that investing in renewables is not only essential for getting to net zero, but it makes economic sense too. SSE Renewables is investing millions of pounds in the green transition, and our new Sustainability Report shows that we are absolutely committed to investing in a sustainable way that benefits workers and communities, as well as the wider natural environment too through our world-leading digital ecological innovations to commitment to biodiversity net gain.
SSE Renewables is expanding in selected international markets to deliver the green energy the world needs to transition to a net zero future.
The company is part of SSE plc, the UK-listed integrated energy group that’s investing £12.5 billion over five years, or £7 million a day, to deliver a Net Zero Acceleration Programme to address climate change head on. The programme includes SSE Renewables’ plans to double its installed renewable energy capacity to around 8GW by 2026 and to treble capacity to over 13GW by 2031. Once completed, that would increase the company’s output fivefold to over 50 TWh annually – enough to power around 20 million homes each year.
SSE Renewables is currently building more offshore wind energy than any other company in the world.
Get more details on how SSE powers the Scottish economy.
