Energy Minister opens wind company’s new Edinburgh HQ

The Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP opened the flagship Edinburgh HQ where wind farm owner Ventient Energy will continue their expansion into Europe.

The company now has a 49% stake in a European 1 GW wind generation portfolio with wind farms in Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium as well as its UK portfolio. Ventient Energy Limited was formed in 2017 from two leading independent wind energy power producers, Zephyr and Infinis Wind.

Mr Wheelhouse said: “Ventient Energy’s expansion is a vote of confidence in the future of onshore wind energy in Scotland, and I am delighted they have chosen Edinburgh as the location for their new headquarters.

“Onshore wind remains the lowest cost electricity generation at scale, has already made a very welcome contribution to meeting Scotland’s and the UK’s greenhouse emissions target, and remains vitally important to our decarbonisation ambitions.  In 2017, Scotland was able to meet the equivalent to 70.1 percent of our electricity demand from renewable sources, largely driven by onshore wind which had an operational capacity of over 7.7 GW in Scotland at the start of 2019, with more in the pipeline.”

Mark Jones CEO Of Ventient Energy said : “Ventient Energy is already one of the UK’s biggest onshore wind owner-operators. Through this ground-breaking step into continental Europe with one of the world’s primary renewable energy groups, we are embarking on the first of our significant growth steps we see ahead of us.

“Our new Edinburgh headquarters are the ideal base to drive this expansion and to deliver stable, long-term return for the funds which support us. We will be looking to grow the team in the months ahead.

“We are delighted that Mr Wheelhouse has opened our new offices and we look forward to working closely with the Scottish Government to help deliver sustainable growth in the UK onshore wind sector in the years ahead.”