The Scottish Government is allocating £17.5m to 22 energy-transition projects in the North East and Moray, with the investments expected to create or support more than 500 jobs and leverage a further £10m of private funding.
The latest round of the Just Transition Fund includes seven commercial projects and 15 community schemes, combining industrial investment with programmes focused on fuel poverty, child poverty, climate resilience, and nature restoration.
The funding will also support industry-aligned training for around 350 learners each year, placing skills alongside capital investment as the region adapts from its historic dependence on oil and gas towards a broader energy economy.
Hydrasun is among the commercial recipients, receiving £1.9m to support development of what the company describes as Scotland’s first electrolyser assembly and integration facility.
The Aberdeen project builds on existing engineering capability in fluid transfer, power and control systems, and clean energy, applying skills developed around offshore energy to a new manufacturing activity.
First Minister John Swinney said: “This funding will create and support hundreds of jobs in the North East of Scotland, helping to ensure they are at the forefront of the transition to clean energy.”
The funding round forms part of Scotland’s ten-year, £500m Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray. The programme is intended to support the regional economy as decarbonisation changes the long-term outlook for North Sea oil and gas.
Employment outcomes depend on more than renewable generating capacity. Offshore wind, hydrogen, grid infrastructure, carbon management, and related engineering can create substantial demand, but regional economic benefits depend on how much manufacturing, servicing, design, and supply-chain work is retained locally.
The latest awards attempt to address that issue through a mix of commercial and community investment. Industrial funding can support facilities and equipment, while training programmes are intended to help existing technical skills transfer into emerging sectors.
The North East has a deep concentration of engineering, project-management, offshore, inspection, fabrication, and energy-services expertise developed over decades.
Those capabilities can be applied to renewable and lower-carbon sectors, but businesses still need investable projects and sufficiently predictable demand to justify new facilities and workforce expansion.
Public funding can reduce some of the early commercial risk, particularly for first-of-a-kind manufacturing or infrastructure. The expectation that the £17.5m round will attract a further £10m of private investment provides one measure of whether grant support is drawing in additional capital.
Hydrogen illustrates both the opportunity and uncertainty. Electrolyser assembly can create manufacturing work, while demand could come from transport, industrial processes, storage, and energy applications. Commercial deployment remains sensitive to electricity costs, infrastructure, customer commitments, and the economics of competing technologies.
Similar pressures apply elsewhere in the transition. Regional employment is likely to be more durable where companies develop products and expertise that can compete across several projects and export markets rather than relying on individual subsidised developments.
The community strand reflects the social dimension of the transition. Regions producing energy can still experience economic disruption as investment patterns change, making household costs, local infrastructure, and community resilience part of the policy response.
Scotland’s approach therefore combines industrial investment, skills, and regional development. Its longer-term performance will depend on whether supported projects become commercially sustainable, training translates into employment, and private investment continues after initial public funding.
The current round provides clear benchmarks: more than 500 jobs created or supported, 350 training places each year, and £10m of expected private investment alongside the £17.5m public commitment.
The larger test for the North East and Moray is whether those projects form part of an enduring industrial base capable of carrying the region’s established energy expertise into growing markets.
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