I am increasingly intrigued by warnings from multinationals granted ScotWind licences to develop huge offshore wind farms that these projects are “at risk” – ie, might never happen.

First it was about zonal pricing which the developers, led by Scottish Power and SSE, hate the thought of. Now, the latest missive from three consortia which represent billions of potential investment in the north of Scotland, warns that “transmission charges pose a significant and immediate threat to both existing and future offshore wind projects”.

Transmission charging is a legitimate issue which has been around for decades. However, nothing has changed since the ScotWind licences were applied for and gobbled up. So why are companies which bought them (cheaply) now sabre-rattling about walking away?

Possibly, they feel in an increasingly strong position to do so in the absence of other options for governments which have bet the house on offshore wind. Or maybe it reflects growing nervousness among institutional investors about the sector. Or maybe a bit of both.

Read more by Brian Wilson

Any way, these threats demonstrate the vulnerability that this one-club approach is leading us into. What if half a dozen ScotWind licensees decided for their own reasons to abandon or put on hold the projects? By their standards, the money paid for licences is small change. Where is Plan B?

Yesterday, a study by Bloomberg warned that even as things stand, the UK is likely to fall far short of its offshore wind target for 2030 on which the net zero strategy depends, with only a small number of projects going ahead before that........

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