SSE/PAPower is flowing from the Shetland Isles to mainland Britain for the first time as the UK’s most productive onshore windfarm comes on stream.
SSE says its 103-turbine project, known as Viking, can generate 443 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes.
Shetland is the windiest part of the UK, which means it will be rare for the turbines not to be spinning.
Chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies told BBC News a “significant acceleration” in renewable energy infrastructure is now urgently needed if the UK is to meet its climate change targets.
“We need to do a lot more of these projects, a lot more offshore wind projects as well, to make sure that we can decarbonise the energy system,” he said.
But critics of windfarms – and the pylons required to carry the electricity they generate – say a new era of…
