Donald Trump has written to Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond, regarding proposals to build an 11-turbine wind farm off Aberdeen Bay, 2km (1.2 miles) from his golf course. The US tycoon has said that his wind farm fight is for Scotland’s benefit and not just his luxury golf resort, which is nearing completion.
A planning application was submitted to Marine Scotland in August, with The Trump Organisation filing its objection to the planning application in September.
The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is a £150m joint venture by utility company Vattenfall, engineering firm Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group.
The marine consortium has said the 11 next-generation wind turbines would be constructed as a testing ground for future developments. The idea for a wind farm in Aberdeen’s waters has been around for nearly six years, and would be expected to create jobs and economic benefit by attracting scientists, researchers, engineers and offshore wind supply chain companies.
A Scottish government spokesman had said ministers would assess every planning application on its merits, taking into account the views of interested parties and the public.
In his letter, Mr Trump, whose £750m project began building a year ago, insisted that he was fighting the application for “the benefit of Scotland”, and not purely his own interests: “Please understand that I am not fighting this proposal merely for the benefit of Trump International Golf Links. Instead I am fighting for the benefit of Scotland. I know that our recent objection has caused a huge amount of publicity about the horrible idea of building ugly wind turbines directly off Aberdeen’s beautiful coastline”.
