ScottishPower has announced a £70 million plan to build a large windfarm on the site of an abandoned open cast mine at Black Law near the village of Forth in South Lanarkshire.

The proposal is for a 120 Megawatt (MW) windfarm generating enough electricity to power 70,000 homes and comprising around 70 turbines.

Full planning consultation is now underway and, if approved, the windfarm could be operational by 2003. During the one-year construction period around 200 local jobs would be created and local companies will be encouraged to tender for the £6 million of construction contracts available. Six full-time jobs will be created.

Black Law is among the first windfarms proposed for industrial and or forested sites under new guidelines for windfarm development set out by the Scottish Executive and Scottish Natural Heritage. It was selected following an exhaustive process to identify the most promising windfarm sites in Scotland based on a range of environmental and technical criteria.

ScottishPower, in partnership with the RSPB and landowners, will be developing a habitat management plan to improve the area for wildlife, especially birds, and new walking and cycling ways with controlled access are also planned.

The improvements will be set out in an environmental assessment currently being carried out into the windfarm's potential affect on the environment in its widest sense.

Much of the four square mile site around Forth village has been derelict since coal mining activities ceased there a year or so ago. The site also takes in some forestry and grazing land.

The announcement follows another by ScottishPower at the end of July for a 240 MW windfarm the biggest in the UK - on Eaglesham Moor, 10 miles from Glasgow, which could also come on stream in 2003.

ScottishPower is one of the Europe's leading windfarmers, with 10 sites in the UK and southern Ireland totalling 100 MW. The Black Law and Eaglesham projects are part of the company's drive to install an additional 400 MW of renewable energy over the next few years.

Black Law windfarm alone would reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by quarter of a million tonnes a year by offsetting electricity generated at conventional, coal-fired power stations and together the two windfarms would meet more than half of the Government's renewable energy targets for Scotland.

The Scottish Executive has been informed and consultations with the local communities continue with a roadshow from 16 to 20 August taking in Climpy, Fauldhouse, Carnwath, Lanark, Forth, Shotts and Carluke.

A full environmental assessment should be complete by this autumn and will be submitted for consideration by North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian Councils.

ScottishPower Executive Director Ken Vowles said: "The company is now in process of informing the local communities of our plans in detail, including via roadshows, and we hope as many people as possible will attend.

"ScottishPower takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and all environmental impacts will be considered during the planning process."

Ken Vowles added that the company was on track to meet government requirements to provide 10 per cent of its generation from renewable sources by 2010.

The project has the support of Scottish Natural Heritage and the RSPB. Angus Laing, Area Manager for SNH, said:

"In our policy statement on renewable energy, SNH has encouraged exploration of windfarms substantially larger than developed to date within or close to the central belt, as a way of meeting a significant proportion of Government's renewable energy targets in Scotland.

"We are therefore pleased to see the Black Law proposal, following a search process in which natural heritage interests have been taken into account from the start. A proposal of this scale inevitably has natural heritage impacts which we will wish to consider in detail once an environmental statement is available."

Stuart Housden, RSPB Director, Scotland, said the proposal was an exciting opportunity to restore a large area of land for the benefit of birds and to widen biodiversity.

"The detailed environmental impact assessment will examine these options and how best to provide for public access.

"We hope the increase in renewable energy generation, jobs and the enhancement of habitant for wildlife will represent a 'win-win' opportunity for Scotland", he added.

Further information:

ScottishPower Press Office
Gordon Laidlaw, Colin McSeveny                                  0141 248 8200