Reasons to be cheerful: A new way to do renewables

By Richard Scott, VP Development & Construction (Global Onshore)

We’re launching JERA Nex at a time when you’d be forgiven for thinking there are more headwinds than tailwinds. It’s not been the easiest time for the renewables sector over the past 18 months, with a ‘perfect storm’ created by rising interest rates, inflationary pressures, and supply chain bottlenecks.

But as we launch JERA Nex, I am hugely optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead. One of the reasons for this is that, despite the current market challenges, the view of both JERA and JERA Nex remains crystal clear: renewable energy is a huge part of the future energy transition. This determination and our ambition to build a platform of 20GW (at or beyond FID) by 2035 is what fuels my optimism – and was a key factor in me joining JERA in 2022 after over 15 years developing renewable projects.

As governments around the world ramp up their commitments to renewable energy targets, the demand for renewables will only continue to grow. JERA Nex brings together the agility and focus of a dedicated renewables company with the backing of JERA’s expertise and resources, a combination we believe makes us able to scale at the pace required by the energy transition.

We are in a unique position to weather the storm while seizing the opportunities that lie ahead.

It’s my role to help to source, secure and deliver these opportunities for JERA Nex in our onshore business of wind, solar and battery storage. I am leading a global team managing the development and delivery of our diverse multi-GW global project portfolio, as we build our global portfolio in these technologies.

The opportunity to do this in countries across the world was another reason I chose to join JERA. Having grown up in Scotland, my career developing infrastructure projects has taken me to nearly every corner of the world, living overseas for 11 years during that time.

Not only do we launch with a global operating portfolio – which includes offshore wind farms in Belgium and Taiwan, onshore assets in India, Vietnam, and the US as well battery storage in the UK, to name a few – we have continued to make progress in growing this in recent months.

In Japan, we have been selected to develop, build and operate the 315MW Katagami wind farm in the Akita Prefecture. And just last month, alongside our consortium partner Ingka Investments, we were successful in the auction for the development of the Sørlige Nordsjø II project – a 1.5GW offshore wind project in the Southern Norwegian North Sea. This was Norway’s first offshore wind auction, so it’s a really important milestone in the country’s renewables journey, as well as our own.

But what excites me the most about launching JERA Nex is the people making these developments happen. From top-tier originators, developers, project managers and engineers to visionary leaders, I have been struck by the passion and talent that permeate every corner of the organization, which is growing by the day. It is this collective drive to make a difference that convinces me we are creating a business with huge potential.

So as the renewables sector hopefully emerges from this storm, let’s not forget how much positive impact we can create through the innovation and collaboration of the people who work in it. From my experience, there’s always reasons to be cheerful when working with brilliant people on exciting projects.