SCOTLAND is taking on a new shape. Did you know that 85% of Scotland’s territory is off the coast? The area is known as the country's territorial waters and when you look at it on a map, gives a radically different perspective to the shape of Scotland.

Historically, Scotland has faced the sea. It was the transport super-highway and a source of sustainable food. It connected Scotland with the rest of the world and made it a cultural and economic centre. The geography and commerce of Scotland has been fundamentally shaped by the sea.

As transport patterns have changed and major ship building and fishing industries have declined, perhaps Scotland’s focus has turned away from the sea. Of course, oil and gas production has been massively important for the Scottish economy and particularly for communities in the north and east, but even this sector is now approaching its sunset.

But things are changing. A blue-green revolution is underway. Scotland is turning back to the sea – and in turn redefining our future as a nation.

Space – the final frontier

Scotland needs lots more renewable energy and to achieve that we need space: space where the wind blows unimpeded and where it can be harvested at scale. As the scale of the energy challenge has become clearer, we are increasingly looking offshore.

462,315 km2 offers Scotland a massive opportunity for a green energy future.

Up to recently, the focus has been on shallow water where wind farms can be built on the seabed. However, it’s a fact of geography that Scotland doesn’t have a huge amount of shallow water, and much of what we do have is environmentally sensitive. So now we are looking further offshore to the enormous potential of floating wind.

The Herald:

A map showing Scotland's territorial waters

Crown Estate Scotland manages the seabed on behalf of the people of Scotland. We’re currently allocating up to 10GW of new sites for offshore wind, and it’s likely that much of this will be floating wind many miles from shore (they may be floating, but they still need guaranteed seabed space).

10GW is a lot of electricity – enough to power almost seven million homes. The technology is challenging, but it is happening. Scotland is a global leader, with the world’s first projects off the Aberdeenshire coast. They are working well and seem well adapted to cope with Scotland’s notoriously stormy conditions.

And the blue-green energy revolution is set to go further. For many years the North Sea has been the space for oil and gas production. We’re already planning the next leasing round to help the energy transition by supplying renewable energy to oil and gas platforms. This will help make our transition from oil and gas as smooth and as green as possible.

The coincidence of oil and gas fields in the North Sea offers two other important opportunities. What if we could capture harmful greenhouse gases and use existing pipelines to pump them into depleted oil and gas fields under the sea? We can – we know it is possible. However, this is a huge undertaking and Crown Estate Scotland is working with partners to turn this possibility into a
reality.

The second opportunity is to use our abundant offshore wind energy resources to produce a green fuel such as hydrogen. What if we could use our oil and gas infrastructure to make a green fuel from the ingredients of water and air. We can – we know it is possible, although this technology is at an early stage. We at Crown Estate  Scotland are excited about this potential to grow the energy revolution.

And what about the energy of the tides and waves? Crown Estate Scotland is supporting the development and testing of the latest technology that has real potential to provide sustainable energy to Scotland’s coastal and island communities.

Nature positive

The blue-green revolution needs to be nature positive. How to bring benefits from Scotland’s natural capital, whilst protecting it for future generations is a big challenge.

Scottish Government’s big-picture plan for use of its huge marine territory, Scotland’s National Marine Plan, was created using environmental and biodiversity data to identify the best places for offshore wind and is just one part of a bigger joined-up plan. Crown Estate Scotland is a core funder of research to better understand the potential impacts of offshore wind, and how best to mitigate them if needed.

Crown Estate Scotland also provides sites for growing food at sea such as salmon – Scotland’s most important food export – shellfish, and seaweed. Just as agriculture is wrestling with the question of what future sustainable food production looks like, so is the aquaculture sector. We’re funding research to help find the answers from long-term monitoring of wild Atlantic salmon through natural approaches to fish health to the coexistence of seals and salmon farms. We’re also helping to grow the shellfish sector which has huge potential to produce nutritious local food and help keep our seas healthy.

Redefining Scotland

There has never been a more significant time for Scotland’s marine areas. I think all of us will become increasingly familiar with Scotland’s marine territory – the new shape of Scotland.

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Capturing the benefits from the renewables bonanza

The Herald:

We are learning how to capture the energy – but we also need to capture the benefits. We need to strengthen the supply chain in Scotland, creating jobs and reducing our reliance on vulnerable and unreliable global supply chains.

We have a fantastic marine skills base that is progressively refocusing from oil and gas to renewables.

We have a heritage of engineering and innovation that makes Scotland a good place to invest. And the prize is big – Crown Estate Scotland’s current ScotWind leasing round could generate billions of pounds of investment, and perhaps even become the most significant inward investment opportunity Scotland has ever seen.

At Crown Estate Scotland we are also looking at how we can actively invest to encourage further investment by others in our ports and harbours. For example, we are working with Orkney Islands Council on exciting plans to enable Scapa Flow – the world’s second largest natural harbour – to become a thriving centre for the renewable energy industries.

We’re also excited about development plans coming forward from Hunterston in North Ayrshire, Kishorn in the West Highlands, Lerwick in Shetland, Aberdeen and Montrose, Leith and Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders to name but a few.

Bringing benefits through coastal community regeneration will be critical.

How is Crown Estate Scotland doing this?

Primarily, through listening and responding to local priorities – acquiring an old pub at Portgordon in Moray for the village to develop as a community hub; working with North Ayrshire Council to regenerate Irvine’s ‘Maritime Mile’; supporting town centre regeneration in Kirkcaldy; funding housing needs assessments in Moray and Argyll & Bute; helping with the establishment of community childcare facilities for Islay; refurbishing the Scottish Dolphin Centre at Spey Bay; supporting community marine litter campaigns and investing in local boat-based tourism projects.