The Scottish government is in talks with two Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to provide the cash for a £4.8bn offshore energy grid, to be built off the east coast of the UK.

 

Scottish Development International (SDI), the government’s inward investment agency, has been in discussions with the funds for two months. One is known to be from the United Arab Emirates, and SDI is opening an office in Dubai to tap into the region’s vast funding potential.

Paul O’Brien, SDI’s senior executive for renewable energy development, said that the grid would “accelerate offshore wind, wave and tidal energy projects in Scotland”.

The move would help meet the European Union’s strict sustainable energy targets, although a deal is unlikely to be agreed until next year, according to Mr O’Brien.

“The point we have to address,” he said, “is finding a way of sparking their interest. They could be joint venture partners or at least part of a wider consortium.”

The transmission grid would stretch from Shetland and the Orkneys on the east coast of Scotland down to Norfolk. Mr O’Brien said that there was 60GW of “untapped potential” from offshore energy that could be accessed only through establishing the grid.

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