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How Scotland Can Lead the Way

New Ground 62
Winter 2001

SERA Scotland has just launched a major campaign to push for both renewable energy and environmentally responsible jobs. Below, Richard Leonard explains how renewables can create new manufacturing industries as well as meet carbon targets, and how Scotland could lead the change to a sustainable economy

It is a welcome sign of the times that a major trade union like the GMB can embrace the green agenda. In a special report to the 2001 Trade Union Congress, the GMB called for a British Just Transition programme of industrial restructuring. Echoing the model developed by unions in Canada and the US, it called for a radical shift in the economy, underpinned by redeployment of workers to sustainable jobs.

Long-Term Thinking Needed
The labour movement in Scotland, needs to think long-term about jobs and energy, beyond nuclear power stations and even post oil. We also need to look at the scope of renewables now.

The European Commission estimates that doubling energy from renewables from 6% to 12% of total European Union usage could create between 500,000 and 800,000 new jobs.

There is a lot of talk about high technology and the knowledge economy, but there must be support for intermediate, and even low, technology. In Denmark, the wind energy industry is based on simple farm windmill technology. Contrast that with the US, whose industry has been dominated by the aerospace sector. Yet it is Denmark’s intermediate technology which has been more successful.

The arrival of Danish firm Vestas in Campbeltown is therefore welcome, though not surprising. However, the UK needs to develop its own wind manufacturing base so that we do not just become a home for overseas-owned screwdriver plants. We need a strategy of import substitution. That will require an overhaul of regional development rules so that indigenous manufacturers, not just inward investors, get a fair share of public investment. For too long, renewable technologies have been researched and developed here but put into full production overseas. The obvious recent example is photovoltaics, which were developed by British companies but manufactured elsewhere.

We should aspire to make Scotland the "green enterprise centre of Europe". We have ample experience in clean energy technologies. Hydropower is well established. Flue gas desulphurisation and low nitrogen oxide burners have been pioneered by Babcocks in the west of Scotland. Howdens has been involved in renewables and John Brown Engineering in Clydebank was an important supplier to the combined heat and power market.

The problem is that whilst Babcocks is holding its own, thanks to exports, Howdens after 100 years no longer manufactures and John Brown Engineering’s gates were locked for the last time in March 2001, after 150 years of history. With more government support, we could take the initiative again in manufacturing renewable energy technology.

Scotland is also in a strong position in wave power. We have leading experts, innovative companies and considerable maritime engineering expertise, thanks to North Sea oil and gas exploration.

We are world leaders in design, research, development and construction. We have expertise in electrical, mechanical and hydraulic component design and manufacture and, if we look at optimum locations for wave power, north and west Scotland come up time and time again.

Government commitment
That’s why the Scottish Executive’s decision to locate a Scottish Marine Energy Test Centre in Orkney is such an important step. There must now be planning for commercial production. That will require a government commitment to open a UK market for wave energy. Only by developing a home market will UK firms have any real hope of supplying the burgeoning global market for renewables. The recent announcement by Energy Minister Brian Wilson of a government commitment of £1.67 million to develop the world’s first ever floating mini power-station, creating electricity from wave power, is very welcome in this context.

We should also think about the continued depression in the oil rig fabrication industry. The transferable skills available should be put to use. These yards provide manufacturing facilities close to the sea and they contain skills, including research and development capacity.

We have a great opportunity to provide socially and environmentally useful work. This work on renewable energy development must form part of a diversification plan which includes the decommissioning of rigs in our oil rig yards. We are not just talking about specialist green jobs like environmental consultants but also opportunities for semi-skilled and unskilled occupations.

Market Forces Not Enough
Renewables need long-term investment. Spontaneous market forces will not work, not least because the electricity market is rigged in favour of nuclear power. There are also barriers arising from the ownership of Scottish industry. Many leading companies are either overseas-owned or run from London, and are driven by short-term thinking.

It is important that the Scottish Parliament supports a renaissance in manufacturing. There is terrific export potential. Manufacturing is often at the cutting edge of technology and over half of service sector jobs are reliant upon manufacturing industry. Whilst we must go beyond the market, we do not want to repeat previous mistakes. Energy policy must be about ending fuel poverty and providing adequate heat and light. Not, as it often has been, about company profits and building lots of power stations.

Unions, environmentalists, energy companies, manufacturers and government should work together. Policy makers need to speak to trade unionists, including shop-floor representatives, a huge untapped reservoir of knowledge.

There are great opportunities, it is important they do not pass us by and this Labour government has the vision to give renewable energy the support it needs.

To order a copy, contact the editor, Claudia Beamish: tel 01555 870227; email claudia@derribeam.freeserve.co.uk