Located in East Renfrewshire in the UK, Whitelee Wind Farm is the largest onshore wind farm in Europe, and it’s about to get a whole lot bigger with plans to install another 75 turbines. The wind farm expansion came about after energy company ScottishPower Renewables struck a deal with Alstom, a French engineering firm, to expand Whitelee’s power capacity to 539 megawatts.
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The deal, that is rumored to be worth about €200 million, will see Alstom supplying, transporting, installing, commissioning and maintaining the turbines. The expansion deal will see Whitelee Wind Farm gain 69 Alstom ECO 100 wind turbines, which have a 3MW capacity, and six ECO 74 turbines that have a 1.6MW capacity.
The wind farm will cement Whitelee’s standing as the largest wind farm in Europe, with 140 Siemen turbines generating 322MW over 90 kilometres. The wind farm, that is situated south of Glasgow, can produce enough electricity to power 180,000 homes.
Image from Flickr © f_shields
Speaking about the deal, Simon Christian, UK director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: “The agreement with Alstom means that work will start shortly on this major extension at Whitelee Wind Farm, and we expect to be generating electricity by 2012. By itself at 217MW, the extension would be one of the largest onshore windfarms in the UK, so we are starting another major construction project in Scotland. Whitelee windfarm is already the largest onshore windfarm in Europe and this extension pushing the overall capacity to 539MW will make it one of the largest in the world. The extension project will provide up to 200 jobs and, when complete, the overall windfarm will be capable of producing enough electricity to power over 300,000 homes.”
Via BBC
Lead image Flickr © _gee_
