By: HAMISH MACDONELL AND STEPHEN MCGINTY

CONSTRUCTION work began on Europe's biggest wind farm yesterday, amid increasing concern that Scotland may not be able to cope with many more developments of such a size and scale.

Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, cut the first turf on the Whitelee wind farm at Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow, hailing the 140-turbine development as a "major contribution" to Britain's commitment to renewable energy.

The £300 million wind farm is expected to produce enough electricity to power 200,000 homes when it comes on-stream in three years.

The Green Party welcomed the start of construction but warned some parts of Scotland are nearing "capacity" for onshore wind farms and said developers and the government would have to start investing more in offshore sites in the future.

Richard Lochhead, the SNP energy spokesman, said that he wanted all future "industrial scale" developments to be based on the sea and only small, community-driven wind farms to be sited on the land in the future.

Mr Darling, however, was adamant that Eaglesham Moor was a success story, insisting that the "lights will go out" unless more major wind-farm developments were given the go-ahead.

He added that he appreciated the concerns of those living near big wind farms but stressed that there was always a cost to the energy demands of modern Britain. "People realise that climate change is one of the major challenges we face and if we are going to do anything about it, we have got to have more renewable energy," said Mr Darling.

"That means wind farms, it means power lines, but if we don't have them, then, quite simply, one day the lights will go out.

"Most people understand that whether it's roads or railways or energy supply, there has to be a balance struck between sensitive development and the fact that we have got to be able to produce energy."

Mark Ruskell, a Green MSP, said the country needed both onshore and offshore wind farms to meet its energy needs but he suggested that the balance would have to move towards offshore sites.

"I would give it another year and some areas will be reaching capacity for large-scale developments," he said.

Mr Ruskell added that he believed the area around Stirling and some parts of Perthshire would reach full capacity soon.

Mr Lochhead went even further, adding: "The SNP believe that the emphasis should shift to offshore for industrial-scale wind farms, and the emphasis on onshore should be micro- renewables at a community scale."

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1497442006

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