Most recent mentions in the Scottish Parliament of EOWDC/Vattenfall

Wednesday, 5 September 2018 15:26

Extract from debate in the Scottish Parliament on April 17, 2018 on air quality Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP): ...Of course, the larger initiatives that are coming to fruition have an immediate impact. The installation of the world’s most powerful single wind turbine off the coast of Balmedie in my constituency is an example of that. Just one rotation of its blades is enough to power a household for an entire day. It is one of 11 turbines that will form the European...Request free trial

Extract from debate in the Scottish Parliament on April 17, 2018 on air quality

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP): ...Of course, the larger initiatives that are coming to fruition have an immediate impact. The installation of the world’s most powerful single wind turbine off the coast of Balmedie in my constituency is an example of that. Just one rotation of its blades is enough to power a household for an entire day. It is one of 11 turbines that will form the European offshore wind deployment centre, and it is expected to displace about 135,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and remove the equivalent of about 740,000 cars from UK roads during its lifetime.

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Extract from debate in the Scottish Parliament on June 14, 2017 on Scotland’s Economy (Opportunities for Growth)

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP): ...The Scottish Government’s energy strategy lays out a target for powering our country by 50 per cent renewables in the next 10 years. We are already ahead of the game, and it is a huge area of growth. The fossil fuel future will be diverted into manufacturing, and chemicals, and there will not be one thing in the chamber that is not touched by a by-product of oil. That will not change any time soon, but the future of light, heat and power is with renewables and that is an area in which we can make an impact.

In 2016, Vattenfall confirmed that it will construct a £300 million 11-turbine wind farm off the Aberdeenshire coast; that European offshore wind deployment centre will be a test and demonstration facility and the largest of its kind in Scotland. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire’s infrastructure—the port, airport and helicopter facilities—make it a natural place for investment. Keith Brown mentioned the investment in the AWPR that will make the area even more attractive as the road nears completion.

The renewables and oil and gas industries build on Scotland’s existing strengths, but in my final minute I want to consider how we can encourage Scotland’s new businesses to seek investment and innovate. Business angel investing is one way in which that can be done, by providing support for a large number of early stage and start-up businesses. However, very few business angels in Scotland are women—about 3 per cent—and investors tend to invest in people who remind them of themselves. If the vast majority of business angels are men, the vast majority of recipients will be men—I am sorry, but that is a fact.

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Extract from debate in the Scottish Parliament on June 7, 2018 on Onshore Wind Energy (Community Benefit)

Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Lab): ...Not every community enterprise can have ambitions on the scale of the Stornoway Trust, and that is where local authorities can also be vital enablers. Aberdeen renewable energy group was set up by the city council and helped to attract European Union funding, and now the Swedish energy company Vattenfall has built on that work by deploying the world’s largest wind turbines in Aberdeen bay. They are due to be commissioned later this month and I was delighted to be able to visit Scotland’s newest wind farm just a few days ago. It is truly a scheme of scale, and it comes with community benefits to match.

This week, Vattenfall announced a £3 million scheme involving investment of £150,000 a year for the next 20 years. Ten per cent of that will be ring fenced for communities nearest the point where the power comes ashore at Blackdog, while the rest will be open to bids from communities right across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Projects will have to demonstrate both community benefit and environmental sustainability, but there is clearly great potential there.

It seems to me that, in different ways, all of those wind projects point in the right direction. Wind energy generation at farm scale and at community-owned small scale bring benefits to the whole of rural Scotland, as in the examples of Udny and others mentioned today.

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Extract from debate in the Scottish Parliament on December 6, 2016 on Renewables

Liam Kerr (North East Scotland) (Con): ...I live in Aberdeen. I have worked there—predominantly in advising the energy sector—for more than 13 years...

I welcome the news that “Vattenfall has agreed to move into Aberdeen harbour to support the construction of Scotland's largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility.”

It has signed a 25-year lease with Aberdeen Harbour Board, so it is the first offshore wind operator to invest long term in the port’s facilities. I cannot wait to visit the company at Commercial Quay when the facility becomes operational in the second quarter of next year. It is a shining example of the future of the energy industry—an energy sector that includes a mix of renewable and traditional energy. Nowhere is more readily equipped or has the expertise, the infrastructure and the experience for building and maintaining an offshore energy sector than the city and shire of Aberdeen. I am confident that that investment is a sign of things to come as the city diversifies to adapt to a modern energy future. That energy mix is key to the future, and our amendment “urges the Scottish Government’s forthcoming energy strategy to set out a balanced energy mix”.

We have to stop talking about wind and tidal power as the be-all and end-all.

However, the debate is on renewable energy, so let us talk about how the UK Government has invested record amounts in the development of the offshore wind sector in Scotland and across the rest of the UK. Pre-2010, the average level of investment in renewables at UK level was £3 billion; the figure is now £7 billion.

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP): ...Renewable energy is one of the keys to an economically successful and sustainable Scotland. In his speech, the minister gave a full picture of the Scottish Government’s considerable efforts to ensure that Scotland is a leader in the success of renewable energy globally.

...He mentioned Vattenfall, a Swedish company that is working as we speak in Blackdog in my constituency to get the substation for the Aberdeen offshore wind farmunder way. Those innovative companies are investing in Scotland and working in partnership with us, which is most welcome, but the environment for Scottish-owned businesses also has to flourish and to be the kind of forward-looking environment that those other small countries were able to foster.

Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Lab): ...Vattenfall, which has been mentioned, is another big inward investor in the north-east. It has just agreed terms with the Aberdeen Harbour Board for an onshore base for the European offshore wind deployment centre, which is to be built in Aberdeen bay. Just as Orkney hosts the European Marine Energy Centre, so Aberdeen will host Europe’s prime site for proving new offshore wind technologies—despite the opposition of a well-known local hotelier who was recently elected as the President of the United States.

International companies such as ABB and Vattenfall enjoy working in Aberdeen, as we have heard, because of the strength and depth of the engineering sector there. They like the fact that the whole city embraces energy and engineering as great ways to make a living.

Andy Wightman (Lothian) (Green): ...Gillian Martin mentioned a company that she visited in the north-east—Vattenfall. It is wholly owned by the Swedish Government, so the idea that the state cannot provide a complementary role in generation of electricity is strange.

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