UK: E.ON plans Ayrshire wind farm

Powergen owner E.ON UK yesterday said it was planning to build what could be its most powerful onshore wind farm in Britain.
The German group said it had applied for planning permission from the Scottish executive to set up a £60m farm on land next to the existing Windy Standard farm in East Ayrshire, Scotland.

The 74 megawatt, 27-turbine farm could produce enough electricity each year to power at least 36,000 households, or 70% of East Ayrshire’s homes.

If approved, work on the site, which would avoid the emission of about 72,000 tonnes of CO2 each year by conventional generation methods, would not begin until 2007 at the earliest.

Head of E.ON UK Renewables, Jason Scagell, said: “We believe this is an excellent site for a wind farm of this scale. It’s only through building more powerful sites such as this that we’ll be able to reach the government’s tough targets for renewable generation.”