nuclear-news

  Hunterston ‘industrial revolution’ on our doorstep

Drew Cochrane, Largs & Millport Weekly News 29th Nov 2024

When politicians of every hue have been popping up in promotional photos in recent weeks to pronounce the pathway to thousands of jobs for Hunterston in the next five years you know it’s for real.

The bad news for those in Fairlie who are of a protesting disposition (God forbid) is that the projects, spearheading Scotland’s mission towards Net Zero, will not be stopped.

First Minister John Swinney risked a nose bleed by travelling way down south to London to welcome the Highview Power plans to create the world’s largest liquid air energy facility at Hunterston which will store as much as five times Scotland’s current operational battery capacity for locally produced renewable energy.

One thousand jobs in the construction phase and 650 jobs in the local supply chain by its completion in 2030 are the headlines.

Labour’s UK Energy Minister and Scottish MP Michael Shanks visited Hunterston this month to see the ‘Converter’ station at the site of the forthcoming XLCC sub-sea cable production factory which promises 900 permanent well-paid jobs, including, crucially, 200 apprentices. Again, contractors and suppliers will also number hundreds in support work.

Electricity is being supplied from the local site to Wales by sub-sea cable as a precursor to the XLCC plan to bring renewable energy from the Sahara, via Morocco, once the production factory bursts into action by 2029, work scheduled to start in March. We also carried the story and picture of the first apprentices being trained.

Local SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson visited Clydeport which has released 350 acres of the land, designated as National Development Status by the Scottish Government. He, like myself, does not buy the argument from some quarters, that the value of properties in Fairlie will fall; quite the reverse when staff move into the area.

It won’t entirely be a smooth transition, particularly, with heavy traffic on the A78 but as I’ve said before on this page this is our biggest industrial revolution since the decades of IBM and nuclear power on our proverbial doorstep……https://www.largsandmillportnews.com/news/fairlie/24745296.drew-cochrane-hunterston-industrial-revolution-doorstep/

December 2, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy storage, UK