Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen has opened the UK’s largest wind project – ScottishPower’s Black Law wind farm near Forth in South Lanarkshire. Black Law marks a major change in the scale of ScottishPower’s renewable business with the project almost doubling the company’s wind power capacity and making it the largest wind power generator in the UK.
The £90 million wind farm delivers an output of 97MW from 42 turbines. The project is located on the site of an abandoned opencast mine, which was completely restored to shallow wetlands by ScottishPower during the wind farm construction programme. The wind farm also incorporates an extensive habitat management project, covering over 14 square kilometres, the largest such project ever undertaken by any UK wind developer. The company worked closely with environmental bodies including the RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage, local councils and the landowners to create suitable habitats to encourage valued species such as long-eared owls, black grouse, farmland birds and badgers.