Europe’s largest onshore wind farm is to be expanded further, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has announced. Mr Salmond was speaking as he officially switched on the 140-turbine Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor in East Renfrewshire. He said developers ScottishPower Renewables had been given permission to add a further 36 turbines to the site. That will allow the £300m wind farm to power 250,000 homes and could create up to 300 jobs, Mr Salmond said.
The first minister officially connected the wind farm, which covers an area about the size of Glasgow city centre, to the National Grid in a ceremony alongside Ignacio Galan, chairman and chief executive of Iberdrola, the Spanish owners of ScottishPower. Each turbine at Whitelee, which started producing electricity in January 2008, stands 110m high.
Mr Salmond said the Scottish Government’s approval of the extension would give the wind farm a total power capacity of 452 MW.
– from bbc
The 322 megawatt (MW) Whitelee Wind Farm was completed ahead of schedule in May 2009.