Scotland eyes Europe's largest onshore wind farm

Siemens has agreed to supply Airtricity with turbines for a planned 350-megawatt onshore wind farm — possibly Europe’s largest — in southern Scotland.

Airtricity is the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).

The 2.3-megawatt turbines will go up at the Clyde wind farm in South Lanarkshire 70 kilometers south of Glasgow. The facility is scheduled to be commissioned in 2012.

Following Siemen’s successful completion of the Scottish Whitelee wind farm earlier this summer — at 322 megawatts, Europe’s largest wind farm to date — the Clyde installation will mark a new milestone for onshore wind power in Europe, according to Siemens.

In addition to providing over 200 construction jobs and more than 30 permanent jobs, the Clyde wind farm could become the largest onshore wind farm in Europe in only two years.

The British government has set a goal of obtaining 10 per cent of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2010.