The UK's biggest wind farm will in three years be pumping out 322MW from 140 turbines towering above Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow, the BBC reports.

The £300m Whitelee project will be launched by Trade and Industry secretary Alistair Darling who said that it would make a "major contribution" to the government's target of eventually generating 20 per cent of Britain's electricity from renewable sources.

Darling declared: "Scotland has long been the UK's powerhouse and is now establishing itself in the vanguard on renewables.

"Some 16 per cent of Scotland's electricity already comes from these sources, compared to four per cent for the UK as a whole, and Whitelee will save a further 250,000 tonnes of harmful CO2 every year."

Scottish Power's chief executive Philip Bowman chipped in with: "As Europe's largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee represents a great step forward for the UK in tackling climate change and is crucial to meeting the government's targets for green energy."

Whitelee will be three times the size of the UK's current league-topping wind farm, sited at Blacklaw near Forth in South Lanarkshire. Eaglesham Community Council "objected to the scheme on the grounds of its size and location, although the area's local authorities did not oppose the development", the BBC notes. ®

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