The Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council (Sowec) counts industry groups, offshore wind developers, energy suppliers, innovation and research specialists and Scottish government representatives among its members.
Its aims to increase Scotland’s offshore wind fleet more than eight-fold to at least 8GW and boost offshore wind jobs in Scotland by more than 75% to at least 6,000.
It will also support increasing local content to 60% in line with targets specified under the UK's Sector Deal agreed between industry and the government earlier this year.
The council will focus on project development in two offshore wind clusters off Scotland's east coast set up as part of the Sector Deal.
Sowec’s members include lobbying group Scottish Renewables, technology innovation and research centre ORE Catapult, seabed landlord Crown Estate Scotland, clean energy supplier Red Rock Power, and the Energy Skills Partnership, a collaboration of Scotland’s colleges and industry partners.
Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse and head of projects in SSE Renewables’ offshore development unit Brian McFarlane will co-chair the council.
Including demonstration projects, there is currently 908MW of operational wind power capacity in Scottish waters, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly.
There is an additional pipeline of more than 6.7GW in various stages of development.
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