Rob Edwards

People power wind turbine blocked by Scottish Water

from The Herald, 01 May 2012

A pioneering plan for Scotland’s first ‘people power’ wind turbine in an urban area has been blocked by Scottish Water because of an insurance hitch, undermining ministers’ attempts to boost locally-owned renewable energy developments.

The voluntary groups proposing to build a large wind turbine at Seafield sewage works in Leith, Edinburgh, are furious that they have been thwarted by the government-owned company, despite having already received backing from the Scottish government and from the private sector.

They are now demanding that ministers step in and order Scottish Water to find a way of enabling the turbine to be built. “We are bitterly disappointed to have got this far only for the project to be stalled on what looks like a technicality,” said Charlotte Encombe, chair of the Greener Leith group.

“We are exploring every available option to resolve this impasse, and will not give up on the project yet. We owe it to the thousands of supporters who voted for us, the hundreds of local people who will benefit and our project funders to try to find a way to break the deadlock.”

Greener Leith, along with the neighbouring group, Portobello Transition Town, proposed building a turbine to be owned and run for the benefit of local people three years ago. Experts identified Seafield sewage works as the best site, and all the funding is now in place to make a planning application.

Trump contradicts himself - again

comment, 26 April 2012 

A small footnote to this week’s Trump circus.

At the Scottish parliament’s energy committee hearing yesterday (422KB pdf), Donald Trump attacked the Scottish government as “foolhardy” for setting targets to cut climate pollution by boosting renewable energy.

“I think that your CO2 targets are absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “Here you are, destroying the financial wellbeing of Scotland to meet phoney and totally random CO2 targets.”

But in the letter (129KB pdf) sent on his behalf by his lawyers to wind power developers, Vattenfall, in December 2010, the message could hardly have been more of a contrast.

“The Trump Organisation fully supports efforts being made by the Scottish government and the Scottish renewable energy industry to achieve ambitious national targets to meet 20% of Scotland’s energy demand from renewable sources by 2020,” it said.

Trump supports wind power, says leaked letter

from Sunday Herald, 22 April 2012

Donald Trump told Alex Salmond that he “fully supports” the Scottish Government’s drive to build more wind farms...before launching a vitriolic campaign against them.

In December 2010 Trump also pledged his support to the company building a turbine test site, the same company he now accuses of helping to destroy the Scottish landscape and place the tourism industry at risk.

A letter leaked to the Sunday Herald reveals that the US property tycoon warmly endorsed the targets adopted by Scottish ministers and industry to boost the use of renewable energy sources. Trump backed “appropriately located wind farms” and wished wind power projects “every success”. 

The revelations could hardly have come at a more embarrassing time for Trump, as he prepares to jet into Edinburgh this week to appear before a Scottish Parliamentary committee and attack the government’s wind power plans. He is also supporting planned anti-wind farm protests.

Trump’s hitherto hidden praise for renewables is likely to be seized upon by MSPs quizzing him at Wednesday’s hearing of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. “Trump's thinking on the issue is as inconsistent as it is irrational,” said the Green MSP, Patrick Harvie, a member of the committee. 

“How can we possibly take his views on renewable energy seriously? It increasingly seems his bellyaching about wind farms is really about him not getting his own way.”

Trump has recently ratcheted up attacks on Salmond and his government in order to try and defeat a plan by the Swedish energy company, Vattenfall, to erect an 11-turbine test site in the sea off Aberdeen Bay. It is about a mile from the golf course Trump has built on the coast at the Menie estate, and he says it will spoil the view from his greens.

Trump has consistently opposed plans for the Vattenfall site but more recently has widened his opposition to attack the whole concept of wind farms.

Most Scots support wind power, says poll

from Sunday Herald, 22 April 2012

As many as 71% of Scots support wind power as part of the country’s energy mix, according an opinion poll conducted for the renewables industry and released today.

This reinforces the results of a UK-wide poll published last week, which found that 67% back wind power. It will be further confirmed by a third poll on energy for Friends of the Earth due out tomorrow.

The polls are all designed to undermine the anti-wind message being brought to Holyrood this week by the US tycoon, Donald Trump, and the protestors he is backing. They think they are winning the battle for public opinion. 

But the poll unveiled today found that 39% strongly agreed and a further 33% tended to agree with a statement supporting “continuing development of wind power as part of a mix of renewables and conventional forms of electricity generation”. Only seven per cent strongly disagreed with the statement.

The poll of 1,014 people in Scotland was carried out earlier this month by YouGov for Scottish Renewables, which represents wind power companies. Support for wind power was strongest amongst young people aged between 18 and 24.

“This lays to rest once and for all the idea that people of Scotland do not support wind power,” said Niall Stuart, the chief executive of Scottish Renewables. He urged the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, which is due to hear Trump’s evidence on Wednesday, to take note.

The Donald unzipped

from Sunday Herald, 22 April 2012

“Woah”, said Donald Trump, as he stared at Miss Scotland at a reception to launch his golf course in Aberdeenshire. “She’s beautiful. She may want to work with sales and stuff.”

The apparent willingness to offer a woman a job on the basis of her looks is one of the most revealing moments in a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the controversial US billionaire and reality TV star. For seasoned Trump-watchers, it will come as no surprise.

The 65-year-old man with the world’s most famous toupee surrounds himself with attractive young women. He is co-owner of the organisation that runs Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA beauty contests.

Dubbed “The Donald”, Trump has been married three times, and has five children and four grandchildren. His latest wife, Melania Knauss, to whom he was hitched in 2005, is a former swimwear model from Slovenia. She is 24 years younger than him.

His chosen representative in Scotland, Sarah Malone, is the former “Face of Aberdeen” as a result of a competition in the local evening paper. “I called her,” Trump told a golf magazine. “I said: ‘Do you know anything about golf?’ She said: ‘No.’ So, I said: ‘Good, you’re hired.’”

Scotland's spectacular scenery 'being wrecked by windfarm vultures'

from The Guardian, 28 February 2012

Scotland's spectacular mountain scenery is being wrecked by "windfarm vultures" making millions on the back of government subsidies, an environmental group says.

The warning follows a decision by the Scottish government to approve a 59-turbine windfarm on the Glenfiddich estate on Speyside, south of Dufftown. The estate is owned by Christopher Moran, a multi-millionaire London financier whose insurance and property business is said to be worth more than £200m.

Critics allege that he is now set to make more than £20m over 25 years for leasing his land for the windfarm, which is 1.4 miles from the boundary of the Cairngorms national park. They blame the "massive financial incentives" offered by Westminster.

"Christopher Moran is just one of many windfarm vultures circling around the Cairngorms national park," said Dave Morris, director of Ramblers Scotland. "Scotland's reputation as a beautiful, unspoilt country is being destroyed as massive industrial-scale wind turbines sprout from the hillsides. Never in the history of public subsidy has so much been given to so few, for so little public benefit."

"He's going to make another shedload out of this," said Robert McHugh, who runs a holiday cottage business near the proposed windfarm, known as Dorenell, and was involved in a local opposition group. "People like us care, and think this is a bad thing, but no politician actually cares."

Doubts over promises to Trump on wind farms

from Sunday Herald, 02 October 2011

The Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire Council have denied that they made any promises about wind farms to the US property tycoon, Donald Trump, casting doubt on his claims.

Trump is vigorously opposing plans for an 11-turbine wind farm in the sea off Aberdeen Bay, a mile from the golf resort he is building on the coast near Balmedie. He has written twice in the last month to the First Minister, Alex Salmond, complaining that the wind farm would look “ugly” and be “environmentally irresponsible”.

The wind farm, proposed by a consortium including the Swedish energy company, Vattenfall, would deter visitors and damage his development, Trump argued. He would not have gone ahead if he hadn’t been “repeatedly promised, as an incentive for us to proceed with my project, that wind turbines would not be destroying and distorting Aberdeen’s magnificent coastline,” he told Salmond.

But both the Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire Council insisted that they had no record of making any such promises. The Sunday Herald asked them under freedom of information legislation to provide details of any statements made to Trump on wind farms.

Wind farms will prevent us from detecting nuclear explosions, says MoD

from The Guardian, 19 August 2011

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is blocking plans for hundreds of wind turbines because it says their “seismic noise” will prevent the detection of nuclear explosions around the world.

The MoD claims that vibrations from new wind farms across a large area of northwest England and southwest Scotland will interfere with the operation of its seismological recording station at Eskdalemuir, near Lockerbie. The station listens out for countries secretly testing nuclear warheads in breach of the 182-nation Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

At a meeting today, Carlisle City Council rejected the latest application for six wind turbines at Hallburn Farm, near Longtown, because of the MoD’s objections. The noise from the turbines would increase interference to an unacceptable level, the MoD said.

The company that made the application, REG Windpower, warned that plans for many other wind farms in the area were similarly affected. As much as one gigawatt of renewable power was being held up by the MoD, the company told the Guardian.

This is equivalent to about a quarter of the UK’s current onshore wind capacity, and could make an important contribution to meeting UK targets to cut the pollution that is causing climate change, REG Windpower argued.

New gas plant launched to help renewables

from Technology Review, 27 May 2011

General Electric (GE) has announced that it has designed a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant that can start up rapidly. The goal is to help electricity grids adapt to the variability of renewable energy.

With a small but growing proportion of electricity in Europe being supplied by wind and solar power, grid operators need new ways to deal with fluctuations in supply. The supply from solar drops dramatically at night, while wind installations only provide power when the wind is blowing. GE's new plant can ramp up electricity generation at a rate of more than 50 megawatts a minute—twice the rate of current industry benchmarks. The plant can start from scratch in less than 30 minutes.

GE is testing a pilot plant at its facility in Greenville, South Carolina, but the plant won't come into operation any earlier than 2015.

The renewable revolution in Scotland

from Scottish Field, November 2010

For some, they are like angels, their long arms swishing through the air, harvesting power and helping to save the planet.

Love them or loath them, wind turbines have come to symbolise the energy revolution that is changing the face of Scotland. More than a thousand have been erected across the land in the last decade or so, and thousands more are planned.

They are the most visible aspect of one of the most important shifts in energy policy ever attempted. To prevent the climate chaos which scientists say is being caused by pollution from fossil fuels like coal and oil, the world has decided to switch to clean, renewable resources, including wind, solar and water power.

Crucially, we also all have to learn to use energy more efficiently, by cutting wastage wherever it occurs. So as well as wind turbines, solar panels and hydro schemes, we need home insulation, double-glazing, better boilers, heat pumps and the like.

None of this is rocket science: it’s common sense. Saving energy saves money, the more so the higher energy prices rise. It can also bring increased energy independence and self-sufficiency, and ultimately help keep the nation’s lights on.

Green watchdog urged to cut red tape for small hydro schemes

from Caledonian Mercury, 02 March 2010

Scotland’s environment watchdog has been accused of hampering the development of small-scale hydropower schemes by insisting on too much red tape.

According to the SNP MEP, Alyn Smith, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) imposes stricter rules than in England and Wales, preventing farmers and other rural business from installing green electricity schemes.

He is calling on Scottish ministers to relax the rules, so that it will be easier to get permission for small river schemes which generate less than five kilowatts, known as “pico-hydro”.

“It is frustrating that Sepa's interpretation of European Union legislation is currently discouraging development,” Smith said.

The scandal of the £122m not spent on greening the UK

from Sunday Herald, 21 February 2010

A massive £122 million of public grants meant to help cut pollution and save energy across the UK have been unclaimed, resulting in tens of thousands of households, businesses and other organisations missing out on chances to reduce their fuel costs.

The UK government has been accused of “shameful incompetence” and a “catalogue of failure” for allowing such a huge underspend on such crucial funding schemes. Poor promotion and the wrong criteria for giving grants are blamed.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in London have released figures showing underspend figures for three key “environmental transformation” funds in response to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrat Party. Over the last three years, 80% of the £152 million budgeted has not been spent.

The LIbDem Scottish spokesman, Alistair Carmichael MP, attacked the Labour leadership for failing Scotland on jobs and the environment. “Gordon Brown claimed these funds would create jobs and develop green technologies, but now we find the vast majority of the money never reached the people who needed it,” he told the Sunday Herald.

 

“This kind of incompetence is shameful when we have rising unemployment and a pressing need to cut emissions. Real investment in renewables would help to create employment and reduce Scotland's carbon footprint.”

Ministers ‘botch’ red tape rules for home renewables

from Sunday Herald, 31 January 2010

Botched attempts by Scottish ministers to cut the red tape that is preventing people from fitting clean, green technologies in their homes have descended into chaos.

The Scottish government will this week complete consultations on plans that put barriers in the way of energy-saving heat pumps and small wind turbines. But - amidst a welter of bureaucratic confusion - it will then launch contradictory proposals to remove the barriers.

Ministers have been accused of making a “shambles” out of a crucial initiative to cut climate pollution and heating bills. According to opposition politicians, they have managed to make a U-turn within a matter of days.

Heat pumps which work like fridges in reverse, extract heat from the outside air and use it to warm buildings. Though they cost more to install than gas boilers, they are cheaper to run and cause less pollution.

Disturbing split within green groups over power line

from Sunday Herald, 10 January 2010

The bitter five-year battle over whether or not to string giant pylons 137 miles down Scotland’s spine has ended with a split in the environmental movement like no other.

On one side are those who care passionately about wild land and protecting the country’s stunningly beautiful landscapes. They include Ramblers Scotland, the John Muir Trust and the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland.

On the other are those who strongly believe the sacrifice is essential to give the nation a clean, safe and climate-friendly energy future. They include Friends of the Earth Scotland, WWF Scotland and the Scottish Green Party.

The fractures between these groups have been visible for some time, particularly in the sometimes heated arguments over wind farms. But the intense dispute over the new power line from Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, has blown the cracks wide open, with disturbing implications.

The environmental movement in Scotland may never be quite the same again. These are, after all, groups that in the past have formed powerful joint alliances, successfully opposing the proposed superquarry on the isle of Harris and highlighting the fatal flaws of the Cairngorm mountain railway.

Study prompts new cancer fears from pylons

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2009

A new study suggesting that children living near high voltage power lines suffer an increased risk of cancers has re-ignited fears about the dangers of building a new chain of pylons across Scotland.

Health researchers in Japan found that children exposed to high levels of electromagnetic radiation from power lines were 11 times more likely to develop brain tumours.

This means, claim campaigners, that the health of hundreds of people will be jeopardised by the proposal to erect a new 400,000 volt electricity transmission line between Beauly, near Inverness, and Denny, near Stirling. The line should be buried underground to make it safe, they say.

The Sunday Herald reported last month that the controversial Beauly Denny line would be given the go-ahead by the Scottish government. Ministers, under fierce pressure from the electricity industry, have promised to make an announcement before the end of the year.

But now the Japanese study has raised new doubts about the safety of living  close to pylons. Scientists from the National Research Institute for Child Health and Development in Tokyo and 14 other health bodies found an 11-fold increase in brain tumours amongst children under 15 exposed to more than 0.4 microteslas of electromagnetic radiation.

New move to protect golden eagles

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2009

Golden eagles, one of Scotland most iconic birds, are going to be given greater protection against persecution and disturbance, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

On Tuesday the environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, is expected to announce proposals to create six large new ‘special protection areas’ for eagles in northern and western Scotland.

This will give the government more powers to help prevent the soaring birds of prey from being poisoned or shot by game keepers. It will also encourage landowners to site potentially damaging developments like wind farms more carefully.

“Scotland is an internationally important stronghold for the golden eagle but their future is finely balanced due to their need for large, undisturbed spaces in which to live,” said Cunningham.

“We are keen to find a balance between access, conservation and development to ensure that all sectors can benefit from and enjoy the countryside.”

Renewables fund under fire for missing out Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 04 October 2009

A £50 million fund set up by the UK government to help develop wave and tidal power has come under fire for failing to fund any Scottish companies. 

The only company to receive a grant so far has been a tidal generation firm based in Bristol, one of whose backers, Rolls Royce, helps run the organisation which gives out the grants.

The situation has infuriated the renewable energy industry in Scotland, which points out that most of the wave and tidal resource is around Scottish shores. And it has been attacked as “pretty dodgy” by the Scottish Greens.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) was established by the UK government in 2007 to boost clean sources of power. Based at Loughborough University, it is jointly run by government agencies and a group of major private companies including Rolls Royce, EDF Energy and E.ON.

Unmasked: the millionaire landowner set to make millions from wind farm

from Sunday Herald, 06 September 2009

A landowner worth £237 million with a chequered past is set to make a killing from hosting one of Scotland’s most controversial wind farms, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Christopher Moran, a self-made financier from London with links to the Conservative Party, owns the 40,000-acre Glenfiddich and Cabrach estate on Speyside south of Dufftown. A plan to build 59 wind turbines on the estate is due to be considered by Moray Council at the end of this month.

Moran has been reprimanded for business misconduct in the past, and his estate has one of the worst records for wildlife crime in Scotland. Yet now he stands to make more than £20 million from the wind farm over the next 25 years.

The revelation has provoked an angry response from national campaign groups and local residents. They accuse Moran of having “his nose deep in the renewables trough” and of neglecting his estate.

Moran hit the headlines in 2006, when it was reported that he was one of the donors to whom the Conservative party had returned millions of pounds in an attempt to keep their identities secret.

Row over Edinburgh ban on biomass boilers

Exclusive, 16 June 2009

The government’s targets to boost renewable energy and cut the pollution that is disrupting the climate are being jeopardised by a ban on wood-burning boilers in Edinburgh.

The renewable energy industry is accusing the city council, run by a coalition of LibDem and Scottish Nationalist councillors, of blocking plans for biomass boilers in schools, while similar developments are being given the go-ahead across the rest of the country.

Burning wood from Scotland’s forests is seen by the Nationalist government as a vital way to provide renewable heat to communities. It has set a target to deliver 11% of the nation’s heat energy from renewables by 2020, and supported 26 schemes around the country.

But the City of Edinburgh Council has rejected plans to install wood-burning plants to heat seven primary and high schools. This is despite the city’s ambition in 2006 to become the most environmentally friendly city in northern Europe.

Renewable research funding cut off by Scottish government

from Sunday Herald, 31 May 2009

Scottish ministers have come under fire for flying in the face of their commitment to climate-friendly renewable energy by cutting off funding for vital research.

Although wind, wave and tidal power companies in England and Wales can apply to the government’s Carbon Trust for research grants of up to £500,000, firms based in Scotland cannot. Money has run out because the Scottish government has refused to come up with the cash.

The revelation is embarrassing for ministers, who have often proclaimed their ambition to make Scotland “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy”. And it has provoked scorn from political opponents.

“SNP ministers desperately try to look like they're funding clean technologies, but the money has run out and the commitment's simply not there,” said Green MSP Patrick Harvie.