ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) has announced plans to repower and expand Whitelee Windfarm, with the company saying the scheme would be a roughly £1.5 billion investment that could almost double the site’s electricity output and deliver significant local financial benefits.
What the proposal means for East Renfrewshire
Under SPR’s outline, communities across the three local authority areas served by Whitelee would share in around £5 million a year in community benefit funding. That annual figure represents a step change compared with the payments from the existing development, which total about £20 million over its lifetime — making the new annual sum almost five times the average received so far.
The company also says the project could increase Whitelee’s capacity from powering the equivalent of roughly 350,000 homes today to about 650,000 homes after repowering. SPR forecasts hundreds of jobs and around £500 million of supply-chain opportunities during the programme.
Community involvement and visitor improvements
SPR has committed to involving local communities in the scheme, including exploring options for partial shared ownership of the repowered site. The plans also include enhancements to the Whitelee visitor centre, which SPR notes has attracted more than one million visits since opening and has become a popular local amenity for walkers, runners and school groups.
“Whitelee is not just an iconic windfarm and the jewel in the UK’s renewables crown, it has also grown into a much-loved asset for the local communities,” SPR Chief Executive Charlie Jordan said.
He added that the firm wanted to ensure that the benefits for communities not only continued but increased, and that the company would work with local people to find the best ways to enable shared ownership.
Practical implications and next steps
The repowering work is planned in three phases and SPR says it aims to maintain public access and the recreational and educational uses of the site throughout the programme where possible. Residents can expect:
- Increased long-term community funding of about £5m per year split across the affected council areas.
- Investment in the visitor centre and visitor facilities.
- Opportunities for local supply-chain contracts and hundreds of construction and operations jobs.
- Potential community-participation options, including partial ownership schemes to be developed with local groups.
The announcement marks one of the larger renewables investments proposed in the central belt and will be of direct interest to residents of East Renfrewshire who use Whitelee’s paths and facilities or who may benefit from community funding and jobs. SPR has framed the project as both a contribution to decarbonisation and a boost to the local economy.
| Metric | Existing | Proposed (repowered) |
|---|---|---|
| Equivalent homes powered | 350,000 | 650,000 |
| Community funding (annual) | — | ~£5m |
| Lifetime community payments to date | £20m | — |
| Investment value | — | £1.5bn |
Local groups and councils will need to engage with SPR as plans progress and as formal planning applications are developed. For residents, the immediate questions are likely to centre on how the additional community funding will be allocated, how shared-ownership proposals would work in practice, and what the construction phase will mean for access to the parkland and visitor facilities.
Further detail, including project timetables, planning submissions and consultation events, should be published by SPR as the proposals move from outline plans toward formal applications.
