Scotlands Biggest Windfarm Grows To Generate Enough Power For Glasgow - by Rob Edwards
Plans for a major expansion of Scotland's biggest windfarm are to be unveiled this week by Scottish Power, with the aim of generating enough electricity for every home in Glasgow. The Spanish-owned company is to apply for permission to build 45 new wind turbines at Whitelee on Eaglesham Moor, south of the city. Along with an extension planned earlier, this will bring the total number of turbines on the site to 221, and allow the windfarm will supply 614 megawatts of "clean green electricity", says Scottish Power. That is enough to power 340,000 households - 55,800 more than there are in the city of Glasgow. When the Whitelee windfarm was first given the go-ahead in 2006, it was for 140 turbines to generate 322 megawatts of electricity.
Whitelee is already Europe's largest onshore windfarm. The second-largest is in Guadalajara, Spain, run by Scottish Power's parent company, Iberdrola, with an output of 208 megawatts. So far, 102 turbines have been built at Whitelee, with another 38 due up before the summer. According to Scottish Power, the company is on target to produce over 1000 megawatts from all its wind farms by 2010. Up to 500 workers have been on the site, which could end up covering 75sqkm of moorland. The scale of the development has provoked criticisms from some environmental groups, though others are supportive.
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