GB Energy could bring 300 jobs to Aberdeen - boss

Juergen Maier said it would be 'well in to next year' before GB Energy began making investments

Up to 300 jobs should be created at GB Energy's new headquarters in Aberdeen, its new boss has said.

Juergen Maier, who was appointed chairman in June, told a House of Commons select committee that a workforce plan had not yet been created but his estimate was there would be 200-300 roles in the city.

He said there was "a lot of opportunity" to take people from the oil and gas sector for the state-owned energy company, which was a flagship policy during the Labour government's general election campaign.

However, Mr Maier said it would be "well into next year" before GB Energy starts making any investments.

Those initial investments would be "very modest,” he said - with just £125m earmarked in the first phase.

The UK government has committed to invest £8.3bn over the parliamentary term.

Mr Maier said that the focus of investments would be technologies like floating offshore wind, tidal power and large scale energy storage but the investments would be "unapologetically long term".

He said it expects to be returning a profit within five years.

Mr Maier, the former boss of Siemens UK, was appointed to the role of the Aberdeen-based energy company in July but it was later revealed he would be based in Manchester.

He was appearing before the Commons' energy security and net zero select committee.

'National champion'

Since GB Energy was announced, the renewables industry has raised concerns that it could skew the market to the point that it puts off the private sector from investing.

Mr Maier told MPs that in his first few months in the role he had "managed to reassure the private sector" that it is not going to compete with them and that he was "very confident" it will be able to create "a lot more" private investment.

He said the plan is to buy "minority stakes" in renewable energy projects but that as a "commercially savvy, innovative company" he will be looking for revenue streams.

In 10 years’ time, he said he expected it to be a "national champion" for the energy sector.

He added that the model for setting up GB Energy was being based on state owned companies like Vattenfall in Sweden and Denmark's Ørsted, both of which have operations in the UK.