O power of Scotland, we'll see your like again (and again and again)

THE world's largest renewable energy company wants to build Europe's five biggest wind farms in Scotland, The Scotsman can reveal.

Scotland is already home to the continent's biggest wind farm – Whitelee, near Glasgow, which boasts 140 turbines, each 110m high, and which generates enough electricity to power 180,000 homes.

But now its owner, Iberdrola Renewables, has told of plans to create at least three and, if possible, as many as five similar-sized wind farms in Scotland.

Keith Anderson, managing director of ScottishPower Renewables, spoke exclusively to The Scotsman at the headquarters of the firm's parent company, Iberdrola Renewables, in Valencia, Spain, yesterday.

"We will end up with a portfolio in Scotland where we will have three to five projects of that size or scale," he said.

The plan would mean Iberdrola finding new sites or building huge extensions to existing sites including the 54- turbine Black Law scheme in Lanarkshire, and Arecleoch in Ayrshire.

The Scottish Government is likely to welcome further investment in renewables as it has an ambitious target of producing 50 per cent of Scotland's electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Ministers want as much of that as possible to come from offshore sources, either sea-based wind farms or from tidal and wave energy, but Iberdrola has made it clear that onshore wind farms are still a key part of its planning.

The Iberdrola plan would spark a furious backlash from countryside campaigners and other groups opposed to large-scale wind power developments. Scotland currently has 68 onshore wind farms with 878 turbines.

The Greens were last night delighted with the plans, estimating that five wind farms of the size of the current Whitelee development would generate the same electricity as one nuclear power station.

But Ramblers Scotland appealed for more wind farms to be built at sea and warned that there seemed to be a complete lack of an overall strategy on wind energy, with developers seemingly allowed to choose the sites of their wind farms, almost regardless of the environment.

Wind farms have proved hugely divisive, some locals strongly supportive and others bitterly opposed to developments.

However, Mr Anderson said that once wind farms are built, local communities become "hugely accepting" of them and they get "incredibly positive feedback". It then became easier to apply for extensions.

Mr Anderson suggested the best way forward for Iberdrola would be to increase capacity at existing sites. The companies have already been through the planning process to get them constructed, and there is also likely to be less public anger at expansion of an existing site.

"Going and finding a brand new never-been-looked-at, 500MW wind farm is difficult but what we are able to do is build extensions," he said.

The company has applied for a 53MW extension to Black Law wind farm, and Mr Anderson said they could also apply to expand the 60-turbine, 180mw Arecleoch farm in Ayrshire.

Mr Anderson did not rule out applying to build a large wind farm on Lewis – the proposed site of a highly controversial 181-turbine wind farm application that was turned down last year after attracting more than 5,000 letters of objection.

"I fundamentally believe there's a way of building a good scale project on Lewis. It's probably not the size and scale of the original, but I think we will definitely see the development of wind farm projects on Lewis and the other island communities."

Mr Anderson stressed onshore wind must not be forgotten due to the recent focus on offshore wind and marine renewables.

"Offshore is a big deal but it has kind of made people forget about onshore. But there's still a massive amount of work to do onshore. It's important that carries on."

Mr Anderson said: "For the UK to achieve European targets between now and 2020 there is a critical need for Scotland. Scotland will play the biggest part, certainly in onshore wind, towards the ability for the entire UK to meet these targets."

The massive Whitelee development was opened by Alex Salmond and Iberdrola's chairman, Ignacio Galán, last month, just after the company had been given permission to add a further 36 turbines to the 140 already on site.

The extension will increase capacity from 322 megawatts to 452MW, enough to power 250,000 homes.

Mr Galán told an international audience yesterday that Whitelee was one of his company's biggest achievements of the year, and he lavished praise on Mr Salmond for his support.

Mr Galán told The Scotsman:

"We are more than delighted with the support that we are receiving from the Scottish Government."

Renewables giant has plans for major offshore schemes

SCOTTISHPOWER Renewables also has major plans for offshore wind developments and tidal schemes, The Scotsman has learned.

The company is carrying out sealife and bird surveys, and exploring radar issues, before applying for planning permission for a massive offshore wind farm near Tiree.

Keith Anderson, the managing director of ScottishPower Renewables, said the firm would probably apply for planning permission for the Argyll Array wind farm of up to 1,800MW next year. This could see about 500 giant turbines built at sea.

However, the company revealed it also had plans for "far bigger" projects off the UK, as part of the Round 3 process of offshore wind development being carried out by the Crown Estate. He would not reveal whether the aim was to build these off the coast of Scotland or elsewhere off the UK.

ScottishPower Renewables is also hoping to install about 40 tidal devices in two sites off Scotland – one in the Pentland Firth and one off Islay.

It is also taking part in a process led by the Marine Estate into the use of the Pentland Firth for marine renewables schemes. It was announced on Monday that 20 companies had shown an interest in projects there.

Mr Anderson revealed: "We have submitted bids into the Pentland Firth process."

However, he said he could not disclose details of the schemes they were hoping to build, due to the Marine Estate's rules.

He thinks that by 2020 there will be up to 1,000MW of marine energy installed in the water around Scotland by various energy companies – equivalent to about 1,000 tidal devices.

"By 2020, if we have achieved that, we will be at the situation where we have proven devices, and then there's the potential for rapid growth," he added.

The firm is planning to use a device developed by Norwegian company Hammerfest Strom. Despite its foreign origins, Mr Anderson said he hoped it would be built in Scotland.

A real world power

IBERIAN powerhouse Iberdrola is the largest renewable energy operator in the world.

The Spanish-based energy giant is also one of the leading private electric utilities.

Based in the Basque city of Bilbao, Iberdrola has 16 million customers in several countries, including more than nine million in Spain.

The company covers all sectors of energy production, from transmission and distribution to the marketing of electricity and natural gas.

Iberdrola is also Spain's largest nuclear energy producer.

Operating largely in Spain for more than 100 years, Iberdrola has expanded rapidly recently, moving into other countries and acquiring foreign competitors.

It bought ScottishPower in April 2007. That merger created the third-largest utility in Europe, and the company now generates about 6,000 megawatts of renewable energy.

The price offered for ScottishPower by Iberdrola, which generates most of its energy from coal-fired power stations and natural gas, was 40 per cent higher than a bid a year earlier from E.ON of Germany.

In September last year, Iberdrola bought Energy East, a utilities company that serves 2.9 million customers in the north-east of the United States.

The building of the energy giant's new headquarters in Bilbao – the Iberdrola Tower – started in 2007. The structure, which will be 165m (540ft) high, was designed by the architect Cesar Pelli.