14 DAY TRIAL // Offshore wind projects are slammed again, this time by Donald Trump, the eccentric billionaire planning to invest approximately £750m(€900m/$1.15bn) in a fabulous golf resort in Scotland.
After being cataloged by the Duke of Edinburgh as mere 'fairytales,' and blamed by experts for being unreliable and less eco-friendly than largely accepted, wind projects are now blasted by Trump, criticizing them for ruining his future plans.
The billionaire was eager to open a five-star hotel, a second 18-hole golf course as well as a series of luxurious apartments, but now he has decided to put the project on hold, convinced that the wind farm, once fully functional, would toy with his profit margins.
"If the north-east of Scotland is serious about tourism and creating a global golf destination it cannot allow the coastline to be ruined by an ugly industrial park (11 64-storey test turbines) directly off the shoreline," stated Trump for the Guardian. Rumor has it that the proposed wind farm is not the investor's main reason of concern. Apparently, Trump is much more worried about the fact that his investment wouldn't become profitable in the long term.
"I firmly believe he is just trying to sell. The planning permission he gained [for the clubhouse] was the final piece to increase the sale value of the golf course. That is the only reason they bothered going for it," explained David Milne, one of Trumps' neighbors, for the Guardian.
At the same time, even if his intervention is clearly defying the utility of wind projects, Scotland is keen on favoring the renewable sector, while generating as much green energy as possible.
The wind project, estimated at £200m (€240m/$307m), supported by the European commission and led by Vattenfall, will bring the latest green technologies under the spotlight and tests the most advanced wind turbines.
Unfortunately, in this case, Trump is not the only opponent. The project has already attracted the criticism of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. As a result, developers were forced to reduce the number of wind turbines, from 33 to only 11.