Sir, Scottish Green awards, sponsored by French company EDF, will consider the Methil turbine erected by an Irish contractor on behalf of Korean industrial giant Samsung Heavy Industries, for a green award. The tower came from China, the nacelle from Korea, the blades from Denmark and most of the money from the Scottish taxpayer via Scottish Enterprise.
The claim that SHI have invested £70m into the project is not credible and they have steadfastly avoided entering into any kind of arrangement to provide community benefits either directly or via Fife Council to the communities hosting the largest “off-shore” structure in the world.
To call it off-shore is ludicrous when it is a mere 30 metres off the Energy Park and connected by a bridge.
I doubt if it has created any local jobs since it was commissioned and to think of Sansung investing at Methil to build a string of these machines for the consented off-shore wind farms is a cross between wishful thinking and pie in the sky.
The construction contractors did a good job and no doubt there is some engineering merit in the design and maybe it would look OK 12 miles off shore.
However to stick it close to hundreds of homes in one of the most deprived areas in Scotland without any community benefit in exchange for the promise of hundreds of jobs and millions in investment that will never come while getting the Scottish taxpayer to foot the bill, is a disgrace.
Graham Lang
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