Energy expert supports offshore wind farm plan

Highland Correspondent

Wednesday 23 May 2012

AN internationally acclaimed authority on the economics of the energy industry is supporting plans for the 11-turbine offshore wind farm project, which has outraged US tycoon Donald Trump.

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David Ross Highland Correspondent

Mr Trump has launched an outspoken campaign against the Scottish Government's green energy policy in the wake of the plans for the £230 million European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), a facility for developers to test new designs, off the Aberdeenshire coast near his £750m golf development.

He has ordered work to stop on the planned 950 holiday homes and 500 houses until the Scottish Government decides on the plan, claiming that no sane developer would build a hotel that looked into what is "essentially an industrial plant".However, Professor Alex Kemp, a globally recognised expert on the North Sea oil and gas industry and director of Aberdeen University's Centre for Research in Energy Economics and Finance, spoke on the project for the first time yesterday. He said: "Research and development [R&D] is integral to the successful advancement of Scotland and the UK's renewable energy industry. "It facilitates robust solutions and leads to wider, long-term benefits such as the acceleration and enhancement of cost reduction and increased productivity. All this should subsequently improve the national financing of renewables. In the longer term, it could reduce the need for subsidies. "The EOWDC test centre and associated R&D facilities address a fundamental gap in the offshore renewables sector for researching, developing and demonstrating new innovations. It also has the potential to attract new entrants into offshore renewables and make it a more competitive industry."He said it could be a real Scottish success story, adding: "The EOWDC has the potential to put Scotland and the UK on the global renewables map as leaders in offshore wind." Mr Kemp will be part of a panel discussing the EOWDC at the All Energy 2012 conference at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre this afternoon.

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Energy expert supports offshore wind farm plan

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