The wind business really is pretty grubby.
Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) is planning to swamp the flat little offshore Isle of Tiree by hundreds of offshore wind turbines, up to a gigantic 200 metres high, starting as little as three miles ‘offshore’. wrapping around the island from SE to NW and occupying a sea area around five times as big as the island itself.
Tiree is not rolling over in the face of this brutalist development proposal, with the No Tiree Array campaign group operating in the same expertly informed and focused vein (vane?) as the successful Kintyre Offshore Wind Action Group. KOWAG saw off a proposal from Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) that was so close inshore as practically to have its toes on the beach at Machrihanish and would have provided a dangerous obstruction to shipping and to leisure sailing in this popular gateway channel.
SPR has announced that it is to ‘invest’ the sum of £10,000 a year in ‘skills training and education for Tiree people to help gain qualifications linked to employment in renewable energy.’
It says: ‘The Tiree Renewable Energy Skills, Education and Training (RESET) Fund will be used to provide financial support to eligible candidates pursuing post-school education or training and was developed following discussions with Tiree Community Development Trust (TCDT).’
This move is disingenuous in several ways.
The ‘investment’ will not of course continue unless the Argyll Array – the formal name of the proposal. better known for obvious reasons as the Tiree Array – goes ahead.
It is possible that this ‘investment’ will be subsidised by the Scottish government under financial support for training initiatives. We understand that the No Tiree Array group has already asked SPR for a statement on this.
Then there is the unfocused openness of the fund to support pretty well anything that could be said to be support for any kind of job in the renewables sector.
There are a limited number of types of job available around offshore wind and renewables in general.
There are the higher level research, engineering, installation design, business development and management jobs; the short term labouring jobs around installation; and the very few jobs in maintenance.
£10k per annum cannot support more than a minimal amount of training for a minimal number of people for what can only be low rent jobs. The understanding is that amounts granted to individuals under this fund would not be less than £150 or more than £1,000.
It is also understood that ‘some non academic provision’ for January to March 2013 will not be advertised by the closing date for applications to the fund for 2012-2013. This closing date is 1st September 2012.
SPR say on this: ‘However, if (Ed: our emphasis) the provision was nevertheless expected to run, candidates would still be able to make in principle applications for funding.’ So there is uncertainty even here.
The fund is flexible in almost every respect.
The sum is so little that the fund cannot credibly be other than willing to apply it to pretty much anything.
It is now open to anyone from Tiree of any age who ‘plans to embark on education and training related to renewable energy this year or early next year’.
Interestingly, this cheap date manoeuvre is in breach of the procedure laid down by industry sector organisation, Scottish Renewables.
In a letter to Highland Council and critical of tat council’s modus operandi, Scottish Renewables said:
‘Community benefit contributions are not material planning considerations and, therefore, should not be discussed until after planning consent is achieved. In the interests of complete impartiality and fairness, Scottish Renewables would strongly argue that any community benefit payments be kept entirely separate from the planning process.’
The decision on the application for the Argyll/Tiree Array will not be decided upon until 2016 yet SPR is already, in the words of one disgusted member of the No Tiree Array group: ‘peddling beads to the natives a couple of years or so before an application is mad (Ed: due 2014) and maybe another two years before a decision is taken.’
The dismissive reference to ‘peddling beads to the natives’ is an entirely justified colonial metaphor.
The sum involved is paltry and the short term jobs it could make almost no impact on supporting – unless they required no training worth speaking of – are equally paltry.
Tirisdeachs are being seen and treated as simple and cheaply duped teuchters.
