ScottishPower today (Thursday) submitted plans to the Scottish Executive for a £70 million windfarm on the site of an abandoned open cast mine at Black Law near the village of Forth in South Lanarkshire. Providing green energy to over 80,000 homes the windfarm will comprise 67 turbines.

If approved the 134MW windfarm could be operational in 2003 and would be one of the largest in the UK. It is a key part of ScottishPower's programme to install some 500MW of windpower over the next few years. During the one-year construction period around 200 local jobs would be created and local companies will be encouraged to tender for 6 million of construction contracts available. Six full-time jobs will be created.

Black Law was selected following an exhaustive process to identify the most promising windfarm sites in Scotland based on a range of environmental and technical criteria.

The planning application incorporates changes following extensive consultation with the public, including 72 organisations and groups and the 180 people who attended a series of public exhibitions on the proposals last August.

ScottishPower, in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and landowners, has developed a habitat management plan that integrates nature conservation, windfarm operation, and other land uses on the site which has been derelict since coal mining activities ceased there.

The plan's main aim is to enhance the biodiversity in the area, covering ten square kilometres. It will involve felling areas of conifer plantation and restoring these to grassland and increasingly rare blanket bog. Some of the conifer areas will be replaced with broadleaved woodland. The open-cast area will be restored to create shallow wetlands, and other suitable habitats to encourage valued species such as farmland birds, badgers, bats, long-eared owls and black grouse. It is hoped these improvements could have a knock-on benefit beyond the boundary of the windfarm.

The submission follows others by ScottishPower this year, including Whitelee, potentially the biggest in Europe, on Eaglesham Moor, 10 miles from Glasgow, which could also come on stream in 2003.

If approved, Black Law windfarm will reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 290,000 tonnes a year by offsetting electricity generated at conventional, coal-fired power stations. Together the two windfarms would meet more than half of the Government's renewable energy targets for Scotland.

Alan Mortimer, ScottishPower's Head of Wind Development, said: "Black Law will benefit not just the global environment, by producing clean green energy for 80,000 homes, but will also have major advantages for the local environment though full restoration of the derelict coal site coupled with extensive habitat improvements for local wildlife."

Stuart Housden, Director, RSPB Scotland said: "Wildlife is already being affected by climate change. We must combat this by conserving energy and reducing our emissions of greenhouse gasses. However, it is vital that renewable energy schemes do not damage wildlife sites through poor location or design. RSPB Scotland has been working to ensure that the Black Law proposal not only safeguards existing wildlife, but also enhances this and restores and creates new habitats for the future. We are confident that if the habitat enhancement work proceeds, both local wildlife and the global environment will benefit."

Further Information

Simon McMillan                                         0141 248 8200