Whitelee windfarm

Europe's largest onshore windfarm project with an initial 140 wind turbines has officially been completed at Whitelee in Scotland.

ScottishPower Renewables' Whitelee windfarm will produce 322MW of electricity to power 180,000 homes. The 55km² site, which is located 15km from Glasgow, will initially consist of 140 turbines.

A proposal to extend the number of these turbines to generate 130MW extra power was approved on 20 May by the Scottish government. It is expected this will provide electricity for an additional 70,000 homes.

ScottishPower Renewables is also carrying out scoping work on a potential second extension, which could add a further 140MW. It is anticipated that an official planning application will be submitted for this later in the summer. This would mean a total capacity of nearly 600MW.

It is estimated there are more than 500,000 people living within a 30km radius of Whitelee windfarm. This is one of the first major windfarms to be constructed close to a large population centre, and an increasing supply of renewable energy has been fed directly into these areas since the site first started exporting power in January 2008.