I’M surprised that people are getting so angry about Scotland not being the primary source for wind turbine fabrication work (“Anger after Scotland loses out again in work for £2bn wind farm”, The Herald, January 21). This is not a new problem, so it astonishes me that the Government is finally and belatedly waking to this issue. We’ve been installing wind turbines for 20 years now and they have almost always been fabricated overseas or by overseas companies.
This is just another sad episode in the decline of UK and in particular Scottish industry. This country, either UK or Scotland, has had zero industrial strategy over last 50 years.
Our plan for industry is completely event-driven. We throw our hands up in horror when an event like this happens and sometimes we throw money at it, viz Prestwick Airport, Bi-Fab, Ferguson Marine. This is not strategic thinking and is usually a waste of taxpayers’ money.
This is typified by the Scottish Government hosting an event last week to encourage local sourcing. Sorry folks, but you are 20 years too late. Like the debacle at Ferguson’s we have almost no experience or capability to deliver these projects. Hence sensible businesses like EDF go to reliable sources that they know can deliver. As an industry veteran of 50 years standing it breaks my heart that it’s come to this.
If we had had our strategic act together we would still be making ships, trains, trams, wind turbines in meaningful quantities for at least domestic consumption. But both UK and Scottish Governments have seriously neglected the industrial and manufacturing sector. So sad.
Ian McNair, Cellardyke.
YOU report that General Electric (GE) is to construct the substations required to support the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm that is now under construction. I’d like to point out that the work currently under way on the substation is being carried out by Scottish sub-contractors working for GE.
Last November we announced that the Port of Dundee is to be the marine hub for the wind farm’s construction; that Eyemouth is the preferred operations and maintenance base for the 25-year life of the wind farm; and that Fife-based BiFab is to construct at least eight of the jackets on which the wind farm’s turbines site. Since then, as you accurately reported, we have announced a series of events to which the Scottish supply chain is being invited to meet the Tier 1 contractors in order to better understand, and hopefully capitalise on, the many opportunities that this wind farm will present for Scottish companies. We are committed to ensuring that as much work as possible from the Neart na Gaoithe wind farm comes to Scotland.
Matthias Haag, Project Director, EDF Renewables and ESB Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm, Edinburgh EH3.
BACK in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher proposed the digging of a rail tunnel between the UK and France, Mrs Thatcher's original plan was to run trains from Edinburgh and Glasgow direct into Paris and Brussels, every day of the week.
I know this, I was part of the project team.
It was a good idea. Get on a train in Scotland get off in Europe.
Why is the Scottish Government and SNP MPs not demanding the completion of the original Channel Tunnel project before the commencement of HS2?
Richard MacKinnon, Glasgow.
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