Trump, whose plans for this windswept, remote part of the Aberdeenshire coast include a high-rise tower and several 4 story units, has long complained that the offshore windfarm will be an eyesore.

The Trump Organisation released a statement: “We intend to open the championship golf course at the end of June, well ahead of schedule.

“All further plans for future development, including the hotel, are now on hold until the Scottish government makes a decision on the application for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.

“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 directly off the shoreline.”

Suspicions have been voiced that Trump has decided to abandon the golf resort as it is no longer financially viable and is using the windfarm, known as the European offshore wind deployment centre, as the reason.

Trump admitted in June that the global recession had lead him to postpone construction of the resort’s luxury hotel, apartments and housing. He said “the world has crashed” since he bought the Menie estate, in Aberdeenshire, and its vast area of dunes in 2005. Linking this delay to the windfarm is a new angle that he did not previously take.

Trump has called for the first minister Alex Salmond’s support in his opposition of the windfarm, but despite initially being a supporter of Trump, he has now refused to intervene.

The proposed windfarm is backed by the European commission and will be a testbed for some of the most advanced offshore wind turbine designs. The £200m project, which will be 2.5km (1.5 miles)south-east of the Menie estate coastline, is expected to create jobs and economic benefit by attracting scientists, researchers, engineers, offshore wind supply chain companies.

Forewind have recently signed a deal with National Grid for two 1GW grid connections, potentially located in Middlesborough (subject to technical site assessment). In March last year Forewind accepted a 1GW grid connection offer made by National Grid to connect its first project into the existing Creyke Beck substation, north of the Humber Estuary in East Riding of Yorkshire. This latest signing will enable Forewind to proceed with the development of two more 1GW projects.

Forewind have also announced their new venture to deploy two meteorological masts with an innovative foundation structure. Forewind Limited, developers of the Dogger Bank zone, signed a contract with Fred Olsen United AS to design, construct and install the two met masts and foundations at the site by late 2012.

The foundation design, known as a suction installed bucket, was identified as part of the Carbon Trust’s collaborative Offshore Wind Accelerator programme, an initiative which aims is to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy by 10 per cent via research, development and demonstration.

The Carbon Trust held a foundation design competition that attracted 104 entries from across the world and resulted in seven finalists including the suction bucket, designed by Danish specialists Universal Foundation A/S.

The foundation is guided into place via an operator varying the pressures within hundreds of water jets integral to its base, as the vacuum sucks it into the seabed. It uses less steel than conventional piled foundations and its design removes the need for pile driving, seabed preparations, scour protection and a transition piece.

The foundations will be installed on Dogger Bank using a new 132m jack-up vessel, Brav e Tern, which is now under construction.

To confirm the performance of the innovative foundations, verify the design parameters and measure the loads and conditions they endure on Dogger Bank, one will be equipped with strain gauges, meters and data collection systems.

Finally, talks between Siemens and ABP regarding the development of a turbine production facility at the Green Port of Hull are ongoing. Although movement has been slow since Siemens signed an MOU with ABP back in January, both Siemens and the UK Government are keen for the development to remain on track.

Following the recent announcement of renewable energy financial support from Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, which specifically promotes offshore wind and tidal power, Mr Cameron said: “I am very passionate about this investment – I have spoken to the head of Siemens about it personally. We have made the decision this week about the ROCs, so in terms of the investors needing certainty about funding for offshore wind, it is there. I think there’s every reason for it to go ahead, and I’ll work extremely hard to make it happen.”

The Siemens production facility is key to serving Siemens’ Round 3 Offshore commitments as part of the Government’s aim to deliver one quarter of the UK’s total energy needs by 2020 and is likely to generate 700 jobs.

Trump is concerned about the effects of the 11 offshore wind turbines on his nearly completed Aberdeen coast golf course, ‘residential village’ and hotel development.

According to Bloomberg Trump wrote in an email “I am very disappointed that Scotland may allow the development of a wind power plant directly off Aberdeen’s beautiful coastline“.

In a previous statement Trump wrote “I was repeatedly promised, as an incentive for us to go forward and proceed with this (golf course) project, that wind turbines would not be destroying and distorting the magnificent coastline,”.

“Unfortunately, despite these prior assurances that the wind project would not proceed, I am now learning that this issue has again raised its ugly head,” he said.

The proposed 11 ‘next generation’ offshore wind turbines will be part of a test project called the ‘European offshore wind deployment centre’ (EOWDC) proposed by Vattenfall, Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group. The Joint Venture submitted their consent application for the wind turbines off Aberdeen Bay to Marine Scotland earlier this month.

Morag McCorkindale, Chief Operating Officer at AREG, said: “As Europe’s energy capital, Aberdeen City and Shire is the ideal location for the EOWDC. The region has an offshore oil and gas supply chain unrivalled in the eastern Hemisphere and therefore has the highest concentration of energy expertise, experience, skills and technology. This industrial-scale know-how is crucial to the development of marine renewables, and in the short-term particularly, offshore wind.

Trump secured government approval for his £1 billion Aberdeen golf course development in 2008 despite strong objections from green groups and the RSPB. The development is near completion.

Photo: Ben Barden

Meerwind wind farm will see a total investment of 1.2 billion Euros when it is built in 2013. It has been a long journey for the project which was proposed back in 2000 and approved in 2007.

The project financing was managed by Blackstone who set up the portfolio company WindMW to fund the wind farm. The wind farm has attracted green investment from Santander and Siemens Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Commerzbank, KfW IPEX-Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Dexia and also EKF, the export credit agency of Denmark, and KfW-Bankengruppe.

Peter Giller, WindMW Board Member said: “The German government has demonstrated tremendous leadership in supporting private offshore wind development and we are pleased that Meerwind is the first project to reach financial close under the visionary KfW programme. With the development of Meerwind, we are able to support Germany in meeting it’s green energy targets.”

Meerwind offshore wind farm comprises 80 wind turbines with a total capacity of 288 Megawatts. According to WindMW the offshore wind turbines will generate enough power to service approximately 400,000 homes, offsetting the emission of approximately 1 billion tons of Co2 annually.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by ten ministers from countries bordering the north sea. The memorandum is an agreement to deliver an offshore electricity grid facilitating the interconnection of offshore energy installations such as wind farms with European countries separated by the north sea and Norway.

The ministers have agreed to start working on regulatory and technical matters with an objective of sourcing electricity from a wider European geographical pool of generators. This is expected by the ministers to both increase use of renewable electricity and reduce the cost to the consumer.

Dr Gordon Edge, Renewable UK’s Director of policy said:
“Large scale interconnection with our European neighbours is vital if we are to connect up our massive offshore wind potential and integrate it into European Markets. Today’s agreement is a vital first step forward in agreeing the rules of the game without which investment cannot happen.”

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a new initiative dubbed ‘Smart from the Start’ with the purpose of selecting the best sites for offshore wind farms. The initiative is based on regulatory change designed to speed up the permitting and leasing of offshore wind sites leading to speedier wind farm delivery.

Green jobs and a stake in the offshore wind economy appear to be the main motivators. Salazar said:
“If we are wise with our planning, we can help build a robust and environmentally responsible offshore renewable energy program that creates jobs here at home.”

American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode said:
“AWEA applauds Secretary Salazar for his leadership in offshore wind. Efforts to rationalize the multi-step permitting process for offshore wind projects are essential for Eastern states to be able to take advantage of this excellent resource. As the pipeline of projects begin to move forward more rapidly, the environmental and economic benefits of offshore wind, including manufacturing facilities and associated jobs, can be realized.”

Transmission links to 2.8 Gigawatts of offshore wind farms are to be put out to competitive tender with the winning bidders to be announced in summer next year.

The Ofgem tender is the second tender round for offshore wind farm high voltage transmission links worth an estimated £1.9 billion (over US$ 3 billion). The tender is aimed at cost effectively incentivising the building of the necessary grid infrastructure to connect 6 UK offshore wind farms to the onshore grid network.

Companies will be bidding to own and operate the electricity cable links to the offshore wind farms. Ofgem say there was keen interest shown in the first round which saw £1.1. billion (US$ 1.75 bn) investement in offshore grid transmission links.

Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Charles Hendrey said: “We have 40% of Europe’s wind and we have 11,000 km of coastline. We ought to be using those resources for our future energy security, but to do this we need to get the investment in the infrastructure that will make this happen.

I hope the second round of tendering for owning and operating the links to offshore wind farms will be as successful as the first, where investment interest was four times the necessary level. This competition also means savings for generators and consumers which I very much welcome.”

Ofgem’s CE Alistair Buchanan said “Britain needs to attract £200 billion of investement in its energy industry over the next 10 years – £20 billion will be for offshore tramsmission links. Therefore it is very encouraging that we have seen such strong competition for the first round of transmission links“.

The first offshore wind farms expected to be facilitated by this (second) grid network competition are Gwynt-y-Mor off the north Wales coast, Lincs and London Array off the east coast. These will be followed by Humber Gateway and Race Bank in the Wash and West of Duddon Sands, off the Lancashire coast.

The announcement comes as another offshore wind farm is commissioned in UK waters off the coast of Kent.

Thanet wind farm comprises 100 Vestas wind turbines each rated at 3 Megawatts.  Thanet owner and operator Vattenfall say it is the largest operational wind farm in the world.

According to the RenewableUK, the UK now has nearly 18GW of wind capacity either consented, in construction or in the planning system in addition to 5GW in operation.

Chief Executive Maria McCaffery MBE, said:

“Five gigawatts is an important milestone for two reasons: it takes us within reach of our 2010 targets on renewable electricity, while proving that each successive gigawatt takes less and less time to deploy. Renewable energy generally and wind energy in particular is not alternative energy any longer – it is absolutely mainstream.”

Øystein Løseth, President and CEO of Vattenfall, said:
“Today we are proud to launch Thanet offshore wind farm, the world’s largest operating offshore wind farm. We are pleased that our investment is making a substantial contribution to the delivery of UK renewable energy objectives and to the Isle of Thanet economy. Vattenfall is working hard to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from its operations, and projects like Thanet Offshore Wind Farm are a cornerstone of delivery.”

The 317 megawatt (MW) wind farm is located between 17 and 22 km north of the town of Sheringham. Construction work began in March of this year and the wind farm is expected to be generating green electricity by the end of 2011.

The electricity export cable laying operation is programmed to begin in late August. The cable installation will begin at Weybourne Hope, west of the coastal town of Sheringham, and work will continue for around six weeks.

Wells harbour on the North Norfolk coast will be the operational base for the offshore wind farm. Once in operation, the wind turbines will need daily maintenance by teams of technicians travelling to and from the new outer harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea. It is proposed that these technicians, and the wind farm company’s management and administration, be based at a new office and storage facility at Egmere.

The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm is owned equally by Statoil and Statkraft through the joint venture company Scira Offshore Energy Limited. Statoil is the operator for the project during the development phase. Scira will be the operator of the wind farm. To find out more visit the Statoil website.

Picture source: Statoil

The new offshore wind farms across Europe total 333 Megawatts (MW) indicating that 2010 is set to be a more progressive year than 2009 which delivered 577 MW at the end of the full year. 151 additional wind turbines have been built but not connected to the grid taking the total installed to 440 MW.

According to EWEA figures there are now 43 operational offshore wind farms in Europe with a total capacity of 2,396 MW.

Energy utility Eon built the most offshore wind farms followed by Dong and Vattenfall. Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens supplied the majority of turbines.

Peter Madigan, Head of Offshore Renewables at RenewableUK, commented:

“Offshore wind build-out is definitely picking up steam across Europe. It is an emphatic endorsement of wind energy as a technology, as countries such as Germany and Denmark, which already have significant onshore wind installations are now pursuing ambitious offshore plans.”

During the first half of 2010, the UK delivered 1GW of installed offshore wind energy capacity accounting for around 40% of European installed capacity. It also has a total development pipeline of 49GW, with a potential do deliver 150 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per annum, out of the UK’s total net consumption of around 315 TWh.

“Offshore wind can deliver not just electricity, but jobs and business benefits to the UK. Earlier this year we have seen some of the world’s best known companies commit to building offshore wind turbines in the UK. This is a once in a generation opportunity and the right time for Government to support the nascent UK offshore sector with well timed investment in ports and infrastructure” said Madigan.