Chinese wind turbine maker Ming Yang is scouting for European locations after the UK Government blocked its plans for a Scottish site on security grounds.
The firm’s chief executive told Reuters they were having conversations with the Spanish government.
“We want to build and manufacture our technology here in Europe with a European workforce,” Horatio Evers said.
“We would invest in a factory in a country, if we have the guarantee that our turbines are eligible for the market,” he added.
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Ming Yang had planned to build a £1.5 billion manufacturing facility at Ardersier in the Highlands.
The proposed development — billed as the world’s largest wind turbine factory — was expected to create up to 1,500 jobs and form a key part of Scotland’s transition from oil and gas to renewables.
It was enthusiastically backed by the Scottish Government.
However, a UK Government spokesperson said they could not support the use of the firm’s turbines, which would include electronics and sensors that gather data and could also be targets for cyberattacks.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said the government had a duty to put “national security and resilience first”.
The company insisted it had spent more than two years addressing security concerns, including around data and cyber risks.
“We have a well-established and robust regulatory and cybersecurity framework, and we have designed our setup to be fully aligned with EU requirements,” Mr Evers said.
“There is no risk to energy systems. Ming Yang nor any other third party can remotely shut down wind farms that we deliver in the European market. Turbines cannot be used to disrupt the grid,” he added.
The decision to block the factory at the end of March sparked a furious political row.
John Swinney described it as an “anti-Scottish move by a Labour Government”.
During an interview with the BBC, he was asked if he believed the UK Government was inventing security concerns.
The First Minister said: “Well, what I want to understand from the UK Government is why they have taken the decision that they’ve taken, because there’s been no transparent explanation to me.”
The SNP leader said his frustration was at the lack of detail.
“Forgive me for wanting to have a bit more information about what is the rationale for that, and what alternatives have been looked at to try to make sure that those security considerations could be overcome, because there are many voices that say that that could be the case.
“Because what I’m interested in is making sure that Scotland, unlike the experience in North Sea oil and gas, actually reaps the reward of the use and development of our energy resources, because £350 billion has gone from the North Sea sector to the UK Treasury, and Scotland has got nothing in return. And I don’t want a repeat of that situation.”
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In a later interview with BBC Scotland, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said national security needed to take precedence over inward investment.
He described the First Minister’s comments as “a pretty strange conspiracy theory”.
“The First Minister was arguing that somehow the national security services were trying to do down Scotland’s economy on an investment coming, for example, from China.
“I can give you a cast-iron guarantee I will not do crankery or conspiracy theory as First Minister. I will always accept national security advice because our first duty as a government would be to protect the great citizens of this country.”