One of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farms is to be flattened and rebuilt with fewer, taller turbines, its owner has announced.
Whitelee Windfarm has been producing electricity for about 20 years on a stretch of moorland near Eaglesham, south of Glasgow, but is reaching the end of its life.
Scottish Power Renewables says the existing 215 turbines will be replaced in three phases with around 124, each of which will be about 110m (361ft) taller.
The £1.5 billion “repowering” project will take 10 years to complete and will double the electricity output from 539 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, which is enough to power about 650,000 homes.
An application has been made to the Scottish government’s energy consents unit and the full planning application is expected to be submitted by the end of next year.
It is anticipated that the upgrade will be fully operational by 2035.
