The Scottish Government has approved ScottishPower plans for the UK''s largest windfarm, Whitelee, to have its own purpose built super battery on site, in what will be one of the biggest battery projects in the UK.
The energy storage system will be used for the UK''s biggest onshore wind farm, developed by Scottish Power Renewables near Glasgow. Ingeteam will also supply the control system, the power converters and the ion-lithium batteries.
So to answer our question, Scotland does have sufficient land area with relatively low sensitivity required to generate sufficient onshore wind electricity generation, but it is not that simple because generation by itself is not sufficient, it requires storage for backup energy.
Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy technology in Scotland, with 16,648 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity by Q2 2024. This included 9,756 MW from onshore wind in Scotland and 2,971 MW of offshore wind generators. [1]
Realising Scotland''s potential to grow capacity in onshore wind and offshore wind (to 20GW and up to 11GW respectively) by 2030 would result in substantial increases in renewable generation, supporting decarbonisation in Scotland, the UK and beyond.
The annex to this letter provides additional detail on current and future potential wind generation in Scotland, comparisons with wider geographies, economic impacts, and real-life examples of what wind generation in Scotland could power.
The project is owned by Scottish Power (100%), a subsidiary of Iberdrola. The key applications of the project are balancing energy demand, managing intermittent resources and energy resilience.
OverviewTargetsHistorical installationsContribution to the Scottish power gridLarge wind farmsUnder construction or proposedOffshore wind farmsCommunity ownership of wind farms
Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy technology in Scotland, with 16,648 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity by Q2 2024. This included 9,756 MW from onshore wind in Scotland and 2,971 MW of offshore wind generators. The largest onshore wind farm in the UK is Whitelee, just south of Glasgow, with 215 turbines and a total capacity of 539 MW.
Scotland isn''t just about tartan and haggis anymore. With 97% of its wind power storage power generation capacity coming from onshore and offshore turbines, Scotland''s become the "Silicon Valley of renewables" – if Silicon Valley had constant 50mph winds and occasional sheep blocking access roads.
Six projects currently under development in Scotland will more than double the UK''s pumped storage hydro capacity to 7.7GW, create almost 15,000 jobs and generate up to £5.8 billion for the UK economy by 2035, a report by Scottish Renewables and BiGGAR Economics has found.
