A Statement Of Intent For Visitors To See

Scotland has this fascination with "Europe's Largest Wind Farm". The current record holder is in Spain, but we're building one just south of Glasgow at the moment that beats the Spanish one by over 100 MW. Then there was the proposed windfarm on the Isle of Lewis which was eventually knocked-back by the Government after much heated debate.

Now the government have announced an even bigger one, to be sited along the M74 motorway at Abington. The 152 turbine, 548MW scheme will be capable of powering 320,000 homes.

I know this area well, as the railway follows the motorway there all the way to England. Actually, it's technically the other way around: the motorway follows the railway, since the rails were built first! This wind farm will be one of the first things a tourist driving up from England will see when they enter Scotland. A statement of intent, if you will.

Actually, I've been saying for years that we should be building turbines on or near motorways. The landscape has already been changed by the laying of tarmac, and the cars will drown out any noise pollution that the turbines may produce! I think there's also scope for putting small vertical turbines down the central reservation of the motorways, to catch the backdraft of passing cars and lorries. I'm sure there's at least a university study in that proposal!