UK's largest onshore wind farm to be rebuilt with fewer, larger turbines

Image source, PA Media Image caption, Whitelee has been expanded over the years to the current 215 operational turbines

Scotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondent Published 22 July 2026 One of Europe's biggest onshore wind farms is to be flattened and rebuilt with fewer, taller turbines, its owner has announced.

Whitelee Windfarm has been producing electricity for about 20 years on a stretch of moorland near Eaglesham, south of Glasgow, but is reaching the end of its life.

Scottish Power Renewables says the existing 215 turbines will be replaced in three phases with around 124, each of which will be about 110m (361ft) taller.

The £1.5 billion "repowering" project will take 10 years to complete and will double the electricity output from 539 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, which is enough to power about 650,000 homes.

An application has been made to the Scottish government's energy consents unit and the full planning application is expected to be submitted by the end of next year.

It is anticipated that the upgrade will be fully operational by 2035.

Image source, Getty Images The first phase of Whitelee was officially opened by then first minister Alex Salmond in 2009, having been commissioned a year earlier, and was the largest onshore wind farm in Europe at the time.

It initially consisted of 140 turbines but has been expanded twice to the current size.

Scottish Power Renewables chief executive, Charlie Jordan, said the company was planning for when the turbines reached the end of their natural lifespan.

"At this critical moment in the push for home-grown clean, green energy, it's important we don't go in reverse and lose the clean capacity that's been hard-earned over the last two decades as it comes to the end of its operational life," he added.

Scottish Power's chief executive Keith Anderson said that repowering the site was "critical" for its future.

He told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast : "Whitelee is an iconic wind farm, it's the biggest one in the UK and it's a huge attraction."

He said: "They will be bigger and taller, but you need to put that in context of the landscape.