Scottish development

(SSE) has been granted consent by Scottish ministers to develop a wind farm with a total capacity of up to 456MW in southern Scotland.

The wind farm will be built in two phases and, on completion, will be the largest onshore wind farm in Europe.

The Clyde wind farm, located between Biggar and Moffat, became part of SSE’s development portfolio when it acquired Airtricity earlier this year.

Scottish ministers’ decision to award consent follows a public inquiry into the development, which was concluded in 2006. As a result of the decision, SSE now has almost 1,500MW of onshore wind farm capacity in operation, in construction or with consent for development in the UK and Ireland.

The wind farm will eventually have up to 152 turbines and construction work is expected to begin later in this financial year.

First commissioning is scheduled for 2010 and completion of both phases is scheduled for 2011. Its development is expected to require the investment of around £600m, which is included within SSE’s existing plans to invest £2.5bn in renewable energy in the UK and Ireland over the next five years.

It is estimated that around half of the total investment (around £300m) will be placed with Scottish companies and more than 200 full-time jobs will be created during the three-year construction period.