ScottishPower Chief Executive Nick Horler today (June 22nd) addressed a major conference on energy hosted by Unite union. At the conference, which was also addressed by the Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, the union said that with the right support from the UK government, the UK's future energy needs could create 10,000 skilled manufacturing jobs over the next ten years.

Speaking at the event, ScottishPower Chief Executive Nick Horler talked about the company’s commitment to developing CCS technology. He said: "We believe that the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills, jobs and tremendous opportunities for growth. To help make this a reality, our parent company Iberdrola is committed to making the UK its global centre of excellence for CCS and we have already established significant CCS research projects with leading UK universities and are undertaking groundbreaking test projects including capturing carbon from our coal-fired power station at Longannet - a UK first.

“It is critical that we do not let timeframes slip. The UK has the required engineering skills, the academic expertise, the natural resources and a supportive Government - all the elements needed to take the lead in developing CCS technology. ScottishPower has a retrofittable CCS demonstration project that could be operational by 2014, and this could kick-start a new industry that has the potential to be as big as North Sea Oil."

Unite's national officer Dougie Rooney said:  "Nuclear power, clean coal and carbon capture technology is key to meeting our future energy needs while reducing C02 emissions. With the right support from the UK government, Britain could become the centre for a global engineering supply chain - 10,000 skilled manufacturing jobs could be created as a result. The demand for components and equipment from power generation companies gives UK manufacturing companies huge opportunities to expand. "

"Britain has taken the lead in developing the technology. The government must foster the right environment for British manufacturing to flourish once again. The export potential is global and reaches out to countries including India and China. The opportunity to create thousands of highly skilled jobs in the UK over the next 10 years cannot be missed, it has to be realised."

Media Information: Paul Ferguson 0141 566 4515 / 07702 665 924