Planning permission for a new wind farm in South Lanarkshire has been approved by the Scottish Government.

The development, which will be located 2km from Crawfordjohn, will consist of 15 turbines and be able to power almost 28,000 homes. It is thought the wind farm will also deliver community benefit funding of £6.37m over its lifetime.

Banks Renewables Limited will develop the scheme, which will have a generating capacity of around 60MW. Around 25 to 50 jobs will also be created through the construction and decommissioning of the project, the Scottish Government has said.


Commenting on the development, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Wind farms, like Middle Muir, play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of the equivalent of 100% of electricity demand generated from renewables.

"Only yesterday we heard from the Department of Energy and Climate Change that Scotland's renewable electricity generation in the first half of 2014 was 30% higher compared to the same period in 2013. This overall increase is primarily due to a 50% increase in hydro generation and a 20% increase in wind output."

He added: "We are already providing over a third of the UK's renewable electricity generation and helping to keep the lights on across our islands at a time where there is an increasingly tight gap between electricity supply and demand."

(JP/CD)