Methil Turbine – Letter to Courier

Dear Sir,

Your report that Samsung Heavy Industries “revealed that it has invested £70 milllion” in its experimental turbine at Methil piqued my curiosity. Where precisely has this £70 million been spent?

I understand that the turbine blades have come from Denmark, the tower from China and the nacelle from Korea. The only bits manufactured in Scotland were made in Paisley and floated round to Methil when they could have been made next door at Burntisland Fabricators. The main installation contractor is Irish.

In terms of jobs in Scotland, there were reports of 16 at the Samsung office in Methil, but no indication that these have gone to Scots, let alone Fifers.

It is, in fact, quite hard to see how Samsung could already have spent £70 million on the project, given that the Scottish Government has pitched in £6 million and Scottish Enterprise stumped up for the planning application. Since the turbine is technically offshore, any electricity it generates will be entitled to a 200% subsidy so it will collect millions from UK consumers, as they pay for wind subsidies through their electricity bills.

The Scottish Government is extremely keen that all commercial wind farms offer “community benefit”, a scheme by which local communities around these developments can share in their subsidy-bloated profits. Community benefit is represented as an acknowledgement that communities “hosting” turbines suffer a loss in amenity, although it is usually no more than a tiny percentage of the actual revenues enjoyed by wind farm operators.

Despite the talk of £70 million, there appears to be no community benefit agreement at all at Methil. Given that the community has been forced into hosting the world’s largest turbine, and that it is much closer to homes and businesses than the 2km setback distance recommended by the Scottish Government for much smaller, onshore turbines, the corresponding loss in amenity will be gigantic.

Those who live and work in Methil are unwitting guinea pigs in a grotesque experiment. The noise pollution and shadow impacts of moving blades will undoubtedly harm their health. Have they already been written off as “collateral damage”?

Yours etc
Linda Holt
Scotland Against Spin