Alex Salmond calls for public share of offshore wind farms

The Scottish government should have a share in all offshore wind developments, Alex Salmond has told the Alba party's conference.

The former first minister also said North Sea oil and gas fields should not be closed down.

Instead, investment in carbon capture should become a condition of licence approval, the Alba leader said.

He also set out his party's case for Scottish independence, suggesting the cost of energy shows why it is needed.

And he criticised the SNP over its failure to hold another referendum on independence since the poll in 2014.

The SNP said the Scottish government was working on a prospectus for independence to present to voters during a referendum campaign.

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The party held its conference at Hampden Park in Glasgow ahead of the Scottish council elections on 5 May.

Mr Salmond told his audience that Alba expected to field more than 100 candidates.

Alba was launched in March 2021. Two MPs - Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey - and a number of councillors quit the SNP for the new party.

However, it failed to win any seats at the Holyrood elections two months later.

'Vast resources'

At the conference, Mr Salmond asked why energy bills were increasing in "energy-rich Scotland".

"The answer is because we allow our vast resources, which by rights belong to the people, to be controlled by the pernicious combination of Westminster government and international capital," he said.

And he took aim at the Scottish government and its position on future North Sea oil and gas developments.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the proposed Cambo oil field "should not get the green light" in wake of COP26 and climate change concerns.

And she has argued that an accelerated transition away from fossil fuels - rather than increasing production - would help Europe break its reliance on Russian supplies following its invasion of Ukraine.

"Instead of closing down the North Sea as bizarrely advocated by the SNP/Green government, Alba say make every consented field invest in carbon capture as a condition of licence approval," Mr Salmond said.

"Let us manage our resources in a way compatible with the future of the planet."

Mr Salmond wants the government to take public share in offshore wind farms

He also criticised the auction of 17 seabed plots for major offshore wind projects around the Scottish coast, which raised £700m.

Mr Salmond said: "And instead of the great billion-pound give-away to foreign capital of our offshore wind licences, which could in time produce up to five times our own electricity needs, then let us take a public share in every single field.

"Let Scotland do with renewables in this century what the Norwegians did with oil in the last - make renewable energy the people's energy."

He told conference that party activists will be distributing 100,000 copies of "the wee Alba book" - setting out its case for Scottish independence.

The former MSP and MP said it was not a party manifesto, but it would answer questions "on Europe, on currency, on borders, on finance".

And he criticised the SNP for failing to hold a second independence referendum, despite winning a majority of seats in five national elections since 2014.

He said Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine had not stopped elections being held - and they should not have been allowed to stop an independence poll.

In February, Mr Salmond announced he was suspending his show on the Kremlin-backed network RT due to the war in Ukraine.

RT later had its licence revoked by the regulator Ofcom.