UK to get EU's largest wind farm

From New Scientist Print Edition.
03 May 2006

Shaking off its image as one of Europe's laggards on renewable energy, the UK last month gave the go-ahead for the EU's largest onshore wind farm.

The electricity company Scottish Power won permission on 27 April to erect 140 wind turbines on 55 square kilometres of moorland and forest south of Glasgow. When completed in 2009, the £300 million Whitelee wind farm will generate a peak of 322 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the average power demand of 200,000 homes.

Whitelee is expected to supply 5 per cent of the capacity required to meet Scotland's target of generating 40 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2020. It was heralded by Scottish ministers as "a significant milestone towards achieving our renewable energy and climate change targets". The UK-wide target is to generate 10 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2010, and Whitelee should provide 2.4 per cent of the capacity needed to achieve this. It will prevent the emission of 650,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, ministers say.

Officials at Glasgow Airport initially opposed the project because of concerns that the spinning rotors might confuse the airport's radar. To overcome the problem, Scottish Power has agreed to build a £5 million radar installation 50 kilometres away in Kincardine, on the site of a former power station.