Donald Trump, the New York real- estate developer planning two golf courses on the northeast coast of Scotland, opposes an offshore wind project by Vattenfall AB and Technip SA. (TEC)
"I am very disappointed that Scotland may allow the development of a wind power plant directly off Aberdeen's beautiful coastline," Trump said today in an e-mail.
Vattenfall, which is planning the 11-turbine project off Aberdeen Bay, submitted an application for permission to build the wind farm this month. The application is now subject to a formal consultation and decision process, the Swedish utility said on its website.
Trump Organization LLC released a separate statement on Aug. 5 saying it opposed the wind farm site and would fight the proposal. Trump is planning a 1 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) golf complex comprising a hotel, golf academy and upscale residential community on 1,400 acres of Scottish dunes.
"I was repeatedly promised, as an incentive for us to go forward and proceed with this project, that wind turbines would not be destroying and distorting the magnificent coastline," Trump, whose mother is Scottish, said in the statement.
"Unfortunately, despite these prior assurances that the wind project would not proceed, I am now learning that this issue has again raised its ugly head," he said.
The golf course construction is weeks away from completion with a planned opening by next July, according to Trump. Trump first identified the site as a potential golf resort in 2005.
Vattenfall and Technip's project would test 11 "next generation" wind turbines in a bid to accelerate clean energy use with the development of an offshore wind industry.
"We believe we have made a good case for the development, which places Aberdeen at the heart of the development of new technologies to serve the growing European offshore wind sector," David Hodkinson, U.K. country manager for Vattenfall, said in the statement.
He said the project would be built with "the same attention to detail in respect of environmental and community considerations as we have for our previous developments."
