Carbon capture job claims at the Peterhead power station – MSP briefing

A briefing for MSPs on the job claims made in connection with proposals for a new gas burning power station with carbon capture at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire.

Briefing summary

In 2022, SSE and Equinor have submitted a planning application for a new gas burning power station with carbon capture plant at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The application is for an additional plant alongside the existing Peterhead gas burning power station.

Friends of the Earth Scotland believes the development poses a significant risk to Scotland’s legally enshrined climate emission reduction goals and to a just transition for workers and communities.

The more time and resourcing that goes into an unnecessary and dangerous new plant, means that less is spent planning and investing in a just transition for workers at the existing plant and the community of Peterhead.

SSE’s planning documents predict that there will be 50 operational jobs at the new plant once it is up and running – a reduction from 83 staff working at the existing plant.

As a result, SSE explicitly state in their planning application that “the direct, indirect and induced employment created by the operational phase of the Proposed Development is likely to have a minor beneficial long term (not significant) impact.”