First Minister brings home £3 billion investment in Scotland

And it’s green. Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, came under fire for leaving to his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, the cross-party talks on creating a joint submission to the UK Government to save the order to build two aircraft carriers.

Contracts worth around £1 billion have recently been let in association with the work and building has commenced on the Clyde. However, the £4-5 billion project  is under threat in the forthcoming Spending Review and in the Strategic Defence Review.

The First Minister, at this difficult time, has insisted on going to northern Spain to Bilbao in the Basque country and it quickly became clear just why he had done so.

Over the next two years, Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant based in Bilbao and owner of ScottishPower, is to invest around £3 billion in renewable energy and cleaner energy projects in Scotland.

The investment will cover the establishment of research centres in renewable energies; offshore wind and tidal energy harvesting and carbon capture coal fire power stations.

These projects are said to secure work for hundreds of Scottish businesses and create thousands of new jobs across Scotland.

With Scotland in possession of 25% of Europe’s capacity for renewable energy generation, it is not surprising that Iberdrola is keen to establish a commanding presence in development in this country.

Their plans also impact on Argyll, with plans to install turbines in offshore wind farms here.

While in Bilbao, Alex Salmond also met with another Spanish renewables company, Gamesa, which is to send an exploratory delegation to Scotland later in September.