Offshore wind policy statement 2020 update: consultation analysis

1. Introduction

In 2020 the Scottish Government published the Offshore Wind Policy Statement (OWPS), which established a 8-11GW offshore wind capacity ambition by 2030. Given the significant increase in the number of potential offshore wind developments demonstrated through the ScotWind and the Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing rounds since 2020, a consultation was undertaken between 18 June and 13 August 2025 seeking views on updating the policy ambition to up to 40GW of new offshore wind energy by 2035-2040.

This consultation has informed the development of an Updated Offshore Wind Policy Statement (UOWPS), which sets out an updated offshore wind policy ambition for Scotland.

The consultation asked two questions:

1. Does “up to 40GW of new offshore wind by 2035-2040” demonstrate an appropriate level of ambition for the Scottish Government? Please explain your views.

2. What additional actions do you believe should be taken by the Scottish Government, UK Government and agencies in order to realise the full potential of Scotland’s offshore wind sector?

We received 80 responses, with the following respondent profile:

Organisations: 43

Local Authority: 3

Consultancy, research, or lobbying organisation (including third sector and think tanks): 13

Energy developer including membership bodies: 18

Public body: 7

Political parties: 1

Ports: 1

Individuals: 36

All respondents: 79^[1]

Responses can be found on the Scottish Government’s website (where permission for publication was granted). As this sample is made up of self-selecting participants who may have a particular interest in offshore wind development, it is not representative of wider public opinion.

This report presents findings from a thematic analysis of responses submitted to this consultation. The analysis was undertaken by the Scottish Government. Qualitative analysis does not permit the quantification of themes. However, we have developed the following framework to indicate which themes are the most prevalent across the data, where:

• ‘Prevalent’, ‘many’ or ‘many responses’ – denotes the majority of the views expressed in the data.
• 'Several' or ‘several responses’ – denotes views that re-occurred frequently throughout the data, though not often enough to be considered prevalent.
• 'Some' or ‘some responses’ – denotes views that appeared occasionally in the data.
• 'A few' or ‘a few responses’ – denotes views expressed by three or fewer responses and is a minor theme.