It looks like controversial American entrepreneur Donald Trump’s plans for redeveloping a site on North East Scotland’s coast have been thwarted by the proposed installation of eleven wind turbines in Aberdeen Bay.

Mr Trump met with opposition from locals when he revealed plans some years ago to buy land, and a section of coastline in the area, to build a high-end, luxury golf course, grand hotel and executive housing. His plans were subsequently approved and building has started on the golf course.

BBC News Scotland reported that work has now halted on the development as Trump awaits the outcome of planning approval for the Wind Farm installation. Mr Trump has said openly and in a letter to First Minister Alex Salmond that the turbines would spoil the sea views for his customers.

The European Offshore Wind Development Centre is a £150m joint venture by utility company Vattenfall, engineering firm Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group.

The plans took a step forward this week when councillors approved the consortium’s submission to Marine Scotland.

Wind farms on land can be unpopular. Many home owners view them as ugly, a blight on the landscape, noisy and unpleasant, which is one reason why basing them out at sea makes sense. At Riello UPS, we are keeping an open mind about all manner of renewable energy sources, particularly solar, as a key part of the future of energy generation and power protection.

Scottish Wind Farms Receive Record Constraints Payments

Wind power has received mixed coverage of late. First of all, Scottish online newspaper Scotsman.com ran an article last week reporting that wind farm operators in Scotland received more than £14 million in the past two years in return for switching off their turbines at times of high power generation.

To balance things out, however, the story was brought to light by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), a charity that has publicly spoken out in the past against wind farms.

REF released information that said that since 2010, a system of ‘constraint payments’ has been operated by The National Grid to compensate wind farms if they are taken off the grid when it cannot cope with high supply.

A spokesperson from Scottish Renewables stated that constraints payments are paid to all electricity generators, including coal and gas power stations and not just wind farms. Such payments are a standard practice in that suppliers are paid not to generate at times of lower than expected demand or when there is congestion on the grid.

At Riello UPS, we see renewables, of all types, as a key part of of the future energy generation landscape and are continuing to develop products and solutions that enable customers to take full advantage of those technologies alongside ensuring power protection for critical applications.

I read with interest an article on ELN (energylivenews.com) that reported that EU regulation on motors could potentially save as much electricity per year as the current annual energy used by 32 million European households.

A European Minimum Energy Performance Standard covers motors from 0.75kW up to 375kW and requires manufacturers to display the international efficiency class of their products. Motors are said to be the single biggest consumer of energy, using around 45% of global electricity every year.

Standby power generators contain motors. To date, motor and generator manufacturers have focussed more on performance. Generator manufacturers have been somewhat motivated by carbon taxes and other ‘green’ initiatives to look at reducing emissions and their remit was to do so without compromising capability. Many have done so admirably. In standby power generation, efficiency didn’t used to matter because such generators ran infrequently and for a short time but with costs spiralling out of control, a downturn in economies the world over and rising fuel prices, energy efficiency in standby power generators may be on the agenda.

The EU’s introduction of this motor standard will heighten concern – especially as such significant savings in energy costs can be achieved.

A recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit concluded that it is possible to save about 20-30% of total motor power consumption (around 9-14% of all global electricity consumption) by using modern technology at all stages of the generation, distribution and use of power.

Interestingly, the report also found that 60% of manufacturers have not yet invested in improving the energy efficiency of their capital, plant and equipment over the past three years. With rising energy costs set to continue, perhaps now is the time to push energy efficiency in power generation further up the agenda.