The SNP Government has received a boost from Westminster as First Minister John Swinney tries to maintain hopes that Scotland will some day get the green jobs his party has promised.
The UK Infrastructure Bank has agreed to provide up to £87 million towards the cost of a subsea high voltage cable plant in Ayrshire.
The firm leading the project, XLCC, says the Hunterston plant will create 900 high quality production jobs. More than 1,000 people would be expected to work in the construction phase, which is due to start next year.
The development could potentially provide a big fillip for an area which has been hit hard by the deindustrialisation process. The plant will be developed on the site of a former coal terminal.
News of UK Infrastructure Bank’s support was greeted enthusiastically by champions of North Ayrshire and of Scotland’s renewables industry.
READ MORE: Is Ayrshire key to Scotland becoming a green industrial powerhouse?
The cables produced in Ayrshire could help to maximise the potential of windfarms off Scotland by taking the output they generate to urban areas far away.
A development on the scale proposed would provide a big helping hand for the SNP Government, which unveiled a green industrial strategy in September.
The strategy was launched more than 15 years after former FM Alex Salmond boasted that Scotland would become the Saudi Arabia of renewables. Claims about the green jobs boom the country is set for have been trotted out repeatedly. However, the numbers of jobs actually created have fallen well short of expectations.
The reaction of the Scottish Government to the Hunterston news was muted. It probably didn’t want to help the UK Government led by Keir Starmer after Labour won loads of seats from the SNP at the general election.
Mr Swinney and colleagues........