January 21, 2011
Scotland

Danish Government accused over windfarm plans

by Doug Archibald, Galloway News, icdumfries.icnetwork.co.uk 20 January 2011

The Danish Government is being dragged into the row over a controversial offshore wind farm plan.

A pressure group opposed to the Wigtown Bay proposal is accusing Copenhagen of double standards as the latest round of consultation is about to get under way. Keep Wigtown Bay Natural has written to the Foreign Minister demanding that Scots should be treated in the same way as Danes.

KWBN claim that Dong Energy, the favoured developer for the Solway Firth venture which is 76 per cent owned by the Danish Government, is a key player in the country’s Environmental Steering Group that set acceptable guidelines for off shore development around their coasts. According to KWBN it was agreed that eight kilometres should be the “minimum accepted distance”

Yet parts of the Wigtown Bay Farm, thought to involve around 90 turbines, could be as little as four kilometres off shore.

KWBN’s chairman, Michael McCreath, said: “What we have discovered has far-reaching implications for Wigtown Bay.

“Based on our findings we have written to the Danish Foreign Minister requesting that the people of Scotland be given the same consideration as the people of Denmark.

“Dong Energy are proposing to build a large wind farm in Scottish inshore waters that would simply not be entertained in Denmark. And Dong were co-authors of the study on which the guidelines are based.

“It simply beggars belief that Dong Energy would propose such a development in Scotland and that The Crown Estate and the Scottish Government would go along with it.

“It’s bad enough that the profits from this development will go to Denmark but it becomes outrageous when you realise that it’s being proposed here because it’s not allowed in Denmark.”

Marine Scotland will be conducting two “follow-up workshops” in the region next week.

The Easterbrook Hall in Dumfries stages the first, on Tuesday, from 6.30 to 9pm with the second at Wigtown County Buildings at the same time on Wednesday evening.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/01/21/danish-government-accused-over-windfarm-plans/