ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), the UK’s largest onshore windfarm developer, has been awarded a prestigious accolade by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

At a ceremony in London, SPR’s efforts in the development of Europe’s largest windfarm, Whitelee, were recognised by the RTPI as they were named winner of the Planning Process award.

Located just 20 minutes from central Glasgow, Whitelee Windfarm took more than 10 years of carefully planning and development, which has resulted in a massive 322MW contribution to the UK’s green energy targets.

The RTPI award judges said that Whitelee “set the standard for future major windfarm projects” and benefitted from excellent research skills, throughout preparation and follow-through, and long term commitment to the site on the part of ScottishPower Renewables and its planning team.

As part of the construction of the 140 turbines, SPR also built a visitor centre that provides an interactive insight into this industry leading development, which has already welcomed over 120,000 visitors in the 12 months that it has been open.

The best practice methods utilised by SPR have paved the way to two further extensions to Whitelee being consented, with the generating capacity set to rise to 539MW, enough to power the equivalent of 300,000 homes.

This is SPR’s third award for Whitelee Windfarm in the last 12 months with the project being presented with the Scottish Government’s Award for Quality in Planning and a Commendation from the Saltire Society & Institution of Civil Engineers.

Keith Anderson, CEO, ScottishPower Renewables said:”We pride ourselves in being a responsible developer and receiving this award from such a respected and important organisation as the RTPI, is tremendous recognition of our efforts.

“Whitelee windfarm is unique and continues to be a shining light and example of how windfarms can be an important part of every community and provide considerable contributions to all our energy futures.”

ENDS

• ScottishPower Renewables is part of Iberdrola Renovables, the largest wind energy company in the world with an installed capacity of more than 12,000 MW at the end of 2010, and a pipeline of over 60,000 MW. ScottishPower Renewables had around 930 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2010, and a pipeline of more than 7,400 MW.
• Iberdrola Renovables has a presence in 23 countries around the world.
• www.scottishpowerrenewables.com