Whitelee Wind Project

GBP 300 million Whitelee Wind Farm. 140 Turbines generating 322MW of Power

Whitelee Wind Farm Project South of Glasgow

The Scottish Executive has finally approved plans for the largest onshore Wind Farm in Europe which will now be completed in 2009 at a cost of GBP 300m. ScottishPower Renewables' Whitelee Project Wind Farm will consist of 140 110 metre tall Siemens 2.3 MWwind turbines generating a total of 322MW of power. That is sufficient to provide electricity to virtually every home in Glasgow - a total of 200,000 homes. The site is located on high ground on Eaglesham Moor south of Glasgow with the turbines located across an area of 7 x 4 miles of moorland and forest. The generated power will prevent emissions of over 650,000 tons of carbon dioxide (1) every year from fossil fuels which would otherwise have to be burned.

May 2009 Update

After ten years of planning and three years of construction, the Whitelee Wind Farm has now been completed and officially switched on by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond (on May 20th 2009). He announced that (Spanish-owned) ScottishPower Renewables have been given permission by the Scottish Government to expand the wind farm with a further 36 wind turbines giving the wind farm a total capacity of 452 MW. He pointed out that Scotland had the potential to generate up to 60GW from renewable sources - ten times more than their peak electricity demand!

During construction, this project employed 500 people, and contributed GBP 300 million to the Scottish economy. Up to 300 green jobs (2) may also be created in the area maintaining the wind farm, the 50 miles of roads and tracks which criss-cross the site, and the GBP 2 million visitor centre.

Useful Links

ScottishPower Renewables (3) - Details of ScottishPower's plans to demonstrate how wildlife can co-exist successfully with wind farms.
Whitelee Windfarm Information Leaflet (4) (PDF) published before the windfarm was constructed.

Web Link References

(1) http://www.reuk.co.uk/carbon.htm
(2) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Jobs-in-Renewable-Energy.htm
(3) http://www.scottishpowerrenewables.com/pages/whitelee_windfarm.asp
(4) http://www.scottishpower.com/uploads/WhiteleeWindfarmInformationLeaflet.pdf