An industry expert thinks the UK is likely to fall short in its quest to have 50 gigawatts of operational offshore wind by the end of the decade.
Benj Sykes, UK team lead at Danish renewables giant Orsted, says it will be a "massive stretch" for industry to deliver the 2030 target.
He also told the Subsea Expo conference in Aberdeen yesterday that developers have been attempting to temper government ambitions.
But Energy Voice says that hasn't stopped ministers progressively ramping up their expectations for the sector - culminating in the 50GW target by 2030.
As things stand, around 14GW of capacity is now operational in UK waters, with scores more projects in the pipeline - a huge amount of which will be off Scotland.
On whether the UK can hit its 50GW target, Mr Sykes laid out a number of hurdles to be jumped.
Fantastic achievement
He said: "Can we get to 50GW by 2030? I think that's a massive stretch. I do think we certainly achieve 40GW, and that would be a fantastic achievement if we get there.
"That would be a huge scale up, and at around £2.5billion per gigawatt, that's a big chunk of investment as well.
"The big challenges are around grid. It's all well and good building the biggest wind farm in the world - we've done it five times at Orsted - but if you haven't got anywhere to plug it in, then it's not a lot of use.
"National Grid is really challenged to deliver the infrastructure that the offshore wind sector needs, specifically in Scotland.
"The other challenge is planning. The planning system is not fit for purpose and the government is currently reforming it.
"There's also the supply chain. The UK isn't the only nation that wants to accelerate its offshore wind build-out, and there is a massive squeeze in the supply chain - whether that's foundations, turbines, cables or vessels."
40GW can be achieved
Mr Sykes, known to many as the godfather of offshore wind, added: "We won't get to 50GW, but I'm confident we can knock 40GW off."
Last year saw the first round of offshore wind leasing round in Scottish waters for a decade.
ScotWind resulted in 20 projects securing seabed option agreements.
Together they total up to 27.6GW of clean energy and are expected to lead to an average investment in Scotland of £1.4billion per project built.