Another windy subject. Europe's Largest Wind Farm Approved

Seems there is a fresh wind blowing in Scotland these days. Plans come and go and the good news is that, as posted in an older article, the Western Isles are saved from this windenergy madness. They are now building Europe's largest windfarm south of Glasgow....

Proposals to build the largest single onshore windfarm in Europe were given the green light today by the Scottish Executive. Situated at Whitelee, south of Glasgow, the ScottishPower project is claimed to be capable of generating some 322 megawatts (MW) of electricity (when the wind is blowing). It is estimated that the Whitelee facility will save some 650,000 tonnes of CO2 each year and will help to achieve the Scottish Executive target of 18% of electricity generated in Scotland to come from renewable sources by 2010, and 40% by 2020. Scotland is on target to surpass the 2010 target and the Whitelee developments equates to over 5% of the capacity needed to hit the 2020 target. The £300 million project was held up because of air traffic control issues at Glasgow airport, but a new radar facility has overcome these problems.There will eventually be 140 turbines on moorland to the west of the conservation village of Eaglesham. There are currently 125 wind farms in the UK. A further 24 wind farms are under construction and 77 projects, including Whitelee, have planning consent.

While the Scottish Executive is keen to promote these developments, there are usually loud protests from those who see them as a blight on the landscape, producing expensive electricity, subsidised by the taxpayers.

The current controversy over the plan for new giant electricity pylons running across the Highlands arises because of the need to upgrade the existing system, so that power generated in remote areas can be fed into the national grid.