Business leaders call for GB Energy to be based in the Highlands

Several prominent business leaders from the Highlands have written to the new Labour government to ask that Great British (GB) Energy be headquartered there.

The letter, sent to Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband, argues that the region is positioning itself as one of Europe’s leading green energy hubs, following the establishment of the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.

It is widely expected that the publicly-owned green power company will be set up in or around Aberdeen.

However, Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Colin Marr wrote that a “significant proportion of the UK’s wind power, both on and offshore, and the majority of pumped hydro storage schemes will be located in the Highlands”.

He continued that the area’s geography – “with deep water, large sheltered ports and inland areas ideal for pumped hydro storage” – makes the manufacture and installations required for the energy transition feasible only there.

Through the freeport, Inverness and the Cromarty Firth has been attracting inward investment at an “astonishing rate” and he anticipates £3.5bn of energy-related funding and a further £12bn of backing for grid infrastructure over the coming years.

“We therefore invite you to give serious consideration to locating the headquarters of GB Energy in the Highlands of Scotland,” stated Marr. “While other parts of Scotland may present competing proposals, they will be primarily based on current energy generation, not on the generation of the future.

“As such, any other location is likely to find itself distanced from UK energy generation and associated manufacturing in the near to mid future.”

The letter was signed on behalf of Highland Council chief executive Derek Brown, Highlands and Islands Enterprise chief executive Stuart Black, University of the Highlands and Islands’ director of economic development Alison Wilson and Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport chief executive Calum MacPherson.

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