Wind boss calls for atomic mix

NUCLEAR power must be part of the energy mix for the future, according to the man behind Europe's largest onshore wind farm, which the First Minister officially opened yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of the Whitelee wind farm in East Renfrewshire, Ignacio Galán, chairman and chief executive of Iberdrola, Scottish Power's Spanish parent company, said nuclear power and renewable sources had to be complimentary.

His willingness to build new nuclear reactors puts him at odds with Alex Salmond's SNP administration, which has ruled out the construction of new stations in Scotland.

Scottish Power has already thrown its hat into the ring to build new nuclear power stations south of the Border.

But yesterday Mr Galán would not go so far as to call on the Scottish Government to change its policy. He said: "If politicians support this kind of technology (nuclear] then we will build this kind of technology.

"We are the engineers; what we know is how to produce kilowatt hours of electricity. The authorities decide the means by which we produce those kilowatt hours."

Scottish Power was yesterday granted planning permission by the Scottish Government to extend its wind farm at Whitelee, adding 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.

Scottish & Southern Energy was last year granted permission to build in South Lanarkshire, with a capacity of 548MW.

But Scottish Power wants to extend Whitelee again, adding a further 45 turbines to build its capacity to 614MW.

Speaking at the ceremony yesterday to connect the wind farm to the national grid, Mr Salmond said: "Whitelee in its current form is already flying the flag for onshore wind power in Europe.

"During its construction, the wind farm employed more than 500 people and ploughed £300 million investment directly into the Scottish economy.

"Scotland's potential for electricity generation from renewables is up to 60 gigawatts – more than ten times our peak demand."

Mr Salmond added that the Whitelee extension meant almost 6GW of renewable capacity had been "installed, consented or was under construction", taking Scotland beyond its target of meeting 31 per cent of demand from renewables by 2011.

The Scottish Government wants to meet 50 per cent of Scotland's energy needs using renewables by 2020.

Environmental groups yesterday welcomed the opening of Whitelee, with WWF Scotland hailing the site as "a very welcome contribution to meeting Scotland's targets for renewable electricity".

Offshore turbines plan scaled back

PROPOSALS for a giant wind farm off the Aberdeen coast are to be scaled back, amid concerns about its potential impact on the safety of helicopter and shipping operations.

The Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) and Swedish utility company Vattenfall had originally announced joint plans to build a £100 million offshore wind farm, stretching three miles along the coast from the Bridge of Don to Blackdog, with 23 turbines, each up to 490ft high.

But the consortium has now revealed that the number of turbines is likely to be cut back, following the recent revelation that the European Commission is considering investing 40 million in the project as a European test centre for offshore wind developments.

Aberdeen Harbour Board had previously warned that the proposed development posed a danger to shipping entering and leaving the port.

Speaking at the All Energy conference in the city, Anders Dahl, the head of Vattenfall Wind, said: "We now consider it highly likely that we will apply for consent for a smaller scheme as a first phase."

It is understood that the consortium is planning to develop as few as 15 turbines at the site.