Thesis
A review of the UK offshore wind supply chain: reconciling economic impact and policy action
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2025
- Thesis identifier
- T17478
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201955487
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Throughout the 21st century to date, there has been significant emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the electricity sector identified as a particular focus. In the UK, offshore wind has been highlighted as a key technology in the transition away from fossil fuel generation and to help meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Recent years have seen the focus of policy change from solely targeting increased installations of offshore wind farms, to the desire to maximise the economic benefit that could be gained through the growth of the sector. The main route to capitalise on this opportunity is through developing the offshore wind supply chain in the UK, with a target of increasing local content in new projects to 60% by 2030. Following a holistic approach, this thesis aims to improve the understanding of the offshore wind supply chain in the UK by examining the interrelated considerations of GHG emission reductions, policy actions, and economic impact. In Chapter 4, the main driving factors behind the reductions in UK GHG production emissions between 2010 and 2018 are investigated, to quantify the specific contribution of the electricity sector. A structural decomposition analysis is performed to determine how this manifests at a sectoral level due to changes in the supply chain, in the first study to employ the technique in an energy context using national economic tables for the UK. Isolating the electricity sector and decomposing the specific contribution of different fuel types further demonstrate the impact of transitioning the sector from fossil fuels to renewable energy generation. Chapter 5 presents the first comprehensive review in the literature assessing how the offshore wind supply chain is encapsulated within UK legislation. The key mechanisms for supply chain planning in UK offshore wind developments are assessed, to improve the understanding of how policy actions can contribute to raising levels of local content. The chapter concludes with a novel, high-level assessment of the supply chain development statements of the twenty ScotWind projects, exploring how the level of local content differs across the proposals and investigating the parameters which may drive the variation. Chapter 6 examines the potential economic impact of the UK investment expected from the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round, and marks the first academic analysis of the economic impact of these projects. Employing Input-Output modelling, the expenditure outlined in the supply chain development statements of the projects is used to capture the economic impacts across the supply chain for offshore wind in the UK, and in addition examine the potential economy-wide consequences of delaying investments. Through the combination of qualitative assessment of policy actions, and both expost and ex-ante economic analysis, this thesis demonstrates where progress has been made in developing the UK offshore wind supply chain to date — and highlights where emphasis should be placed to reach the future ambitious goals for the sector.
- Advisor / supervisor
- McMillan, David
- Allan, Grant
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of thesis T17478 | 2025-10-22 | Public | Download |