Europe's largest wind farm connected to national grid

Europe's largest onshore wind farm was officially switched on today by Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond.

And he announced that the Scottish Government had given permission for the £300 million Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire to be extended –creating about 300 jobs and increasing the amount of electricity the farm can generate.

Mr Salmond made the announcement of the site's extension when he carried out the switch-on, connecting the turbines there to the national grid.

The site already has 140 turbines, said to be capable of generating 322 megawatts of energy – enough to power 180,000 homes.

The extension will allow a further 36 turbines to be installed, taking the total power capacity to 452 megawatts – enough to power 250,000 homes.

The First Minister said: "Whitelee in its current form is already flying the flag for onshore wind power in Europe.

"The planned extension, which I am delighted to announce today, will enable the wind farm to harness its comparative and competitive advantage in wind-generated energy within Europe. It has the infrastructure, the expertise and the capacity to continue to develop in the future."

Mr Salmond said that during its initial construction Whitelee Windfarm had employed more than 500 people and contributed £300 million directly into the Scottish economy.

But the benefits went beyond that, he added.

"It is an investment in Scotland's potential and ambition to lead the clean, green energy revolution."

And Mr Salmond said Scotland had the potential to generate much more electricity from renewable energy sources, saying: "Our potential for electricity generation from renewables is up to 60 gigawatts – more than 10 times our peak demand."

More than 16,000 jobs may be created in the renewable-energy sector over the next decade, he added.

Scottish ministers have now approved 23 major energy projects – including 22 renewables projects – since the SNP took office in May 2007.

Mr Salmond said that meant more applications had been decided by his Government than in the previous four years.

"We are determined to get rid of harmful emissions from our environment while capitalising on the vast economic opportunities our natural advantage in renewable energy poses." he went on.

The Scottish Government has said it wants to have 31% of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2011, rising to 50% by 2020.

Richard Dixon, director of environmental charity WWF Scotland, said Whitelee Windfarm makes "a very welcome contribution to meeting Scotland's targets for renewable electricity and reducing climate-change emissions".

He added: "On and offshore wind, wave, tidal, hydro, biomass and solar are all going to be important in Scotland's future mix of clean, green energy."