Whitelee Wind Farm
8:46 PM
Whitelee Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in Europe, with 140 Siemens wind turbines and a total capacity of 322 megawatts (MW). Whitelee was developed and is operated by ScottishPower Renewables, which is part of the Spanish company Iberdrola.
The Scottish government has a target of generating 31% of Scotland's electricity from renewable energy by 2011 and 50% by 2020. The majority of this is likely to come from wind power.
Positioned 370 meters (1200 feet) above sea level and 15 kilometres (9 miles) outside Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, the wind farm has over half a million people living within a 30 km radius. This makes Whitelee Wind Farm one of the first large-scale wind farms to be developed close to a centre of population. In May 2009, Whitelee was officially opened to the public by Alex Salmond MSP, First Minister for Scotland. However, Whitelee was generating power long before this with the first phase of the wind farm supplying power to the electricity grid in January 2008.
In May 2009, the Scottish Government granted permission for an extension to the wind farm that will produce up to a further 130 megawatts of power, which would increase the total generating capacity of Whitelee to 452 MW. There is also the potential to increase the generating capacity once again by 140 megawatts. This would give Whitelee the potential to generate almost 600 megawatts of renewable energy. this will make it one of the largest farms in Europe, the extra capacity should be on-line by 2012.
On 19 March 2010 a blade snapped off a turbine, resulting in temporary suspension of operations until safety checks were completed. Following the accident Keith Anderson, managing director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: "This type of incident is exceptionally rare and highly unusual."| Whitelee Wind Farm | |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Locale | near Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | May 2009 |
| Owner(s) | Scottish Power |
| Turbine information | |
| Turbines | 140 |
| Manufacturer(s) | Siemens Wind Power |
| Model(s) | Siemens SWT-2.3 |
| Hub height | 65m |
| Rotor diameter | 90m |
| Power generation information | |
| Installed capacity | 322 MW |
