Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Net-Zero and Energy fears that the offshore wind sector won't have enough workers to deliver projects.

During his keynote speech at the Floating Offshore Wind 2022 conference in Aberdeen, Michael Matheson described access to labour as the "area that worries me most".

A dearth of available talent is already hampering the energy industry in its bid to scale up supplies of oil & gas and renewables.

Energy Voice says many companies have said they are struggling to fill employment gaps, and it's an issue that's expected to worsen in the coming years,

In an effort to ease the problem, a summit focusing on transitioning Scottish workers from oil and gas to renewables is scheduled to take place next month.

The Aberdeen event is on November 2.

Biggest strengths

Mr Matheson said: "It is absolutely essential that we recognise that our oil and gas sector here in Scotland is one of our biggest strengths in helping to support our transition to renewable energy and to offshore floating wind in particular.

"Our expertise in areas such as subsea in Aberdeen is second to none in the world - it is a global centre of expertise and we need to make sure that we capitalise on that.

"Just next month, I'll be hosting an emergency summit which will bring together a whole range of key stakeholders to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to help support those working in the oil and gas sector to transition into renewables.

"At that meeting we'll have stakeholders from the private sector, regulatory agencies, government and a range of other support organisation, such as higher education and certifiers."

Mr Matheson spoke about creating a pathway for those working in oil and gas but who want to go into renewables to be able to get the skills and training necessary.

Key to preventing offshore workers being left on the scrapheap will be ensuring that a large slice of the fabrication work for Scottish offshore wind projects is carried out domestically.

Well-founded fears

But Energy Voice says there are still well-founded fears, based on the industry's track record, that most of the manufacturing work for ScotWind schemes will take place overseas.

While acknowledging that not all the manufacturing work can take place domestically, Mr Matheson stressed he expects a "significant amount" to be done in Scotland.

He added: "It would be wrong for Scotland to simply become a production base for energy, without also having the manufacturing capabilities that go alongside many of these developments.

"That doesn't mean that everything has to be made here in Scotland - that's just not going to happen - but it also doesn't mean that there can't be a significant amount of it manufactured, developed and maintained here."

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