SSE powers its way to milestone as wind overtakes hydro generation

Perth-based SSE, which began life in 1947 as the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board and made its name with the giant hydro schemes of the 1950s and 1960s, now has the capacity to generate more than one giga watt (GW) of power from the wind – sufficient to run 750,000 homes.

That total compares with just 40 mega-watts (MW) of wind power six years ago, where 1GW equals 1,000MW, pushing Scotland closer towards its renewable energy target.

SSE said it had made “good progress” at its Clyde, Griffin and Gordonbush wind farms in Scotland and its Slieve Kirk site in Northern Ireland, allowing it to bring online more than 300MW of power in the first nine months of its current financial year.

As gale-force winds battered Scotland yesterday, the power firm vowed to continue adding turbines in the coming months.

Ian Marchant, SSE’s chief executive, said: “Passing the 1GW milestone for onshore wind farm capacity is a very positive development as we start the New Year. With construction work continuing at sites in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we expect that our operating onshore wind farm capacity will continue to grow significantly in the coming months.”

SSE – known affectionately in the Highlands as simply “the hydro board” – generates more than 11GW of power in the UK and Ireland from a mixture of hydro-electric dams, wind turbines and coal- and gas-fired power stations.

The group – which trades under brands including Airtricity, Atlantic and Scottish Hyrdro – generates and distributes power to 3.5 million homes and workplaces in the British Isles, providing electricity, gas and engineering services to some ten million customers.

The Scottish Government wants to meet all of Scotland’s electricity requirements from renewable energy sources – such as hydro-electric schemes, on- and off-shore wind turbines and wave and tidal devices – by 2020.

But critics have questioned whether the SNP administration can meet its target, with former Labour energy minister Brian Wilson calling in yesterday’s Scotsman for the Scottish Government to outline how much power it expects each source to be generating by the end of the decade.

A spokesman for the government claimed that its renewables strategy was already “delivering hundreds of millions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs” throughout Scotland.

He added: “This is a historic milestone for SSE and plays a key role in ensuring communities all over Scotland will benefit from renewable energy generation.”

Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, added: “SSE is to be congratulated, 1GW of wind power is a tremendous milestone. Just the wind-powered electricity from this one company represents enough capacity to provide a quarter of Scotland’s average electricity demand in ideal conditions.

“To meet our climate and energy targets, we need more wind turbines, as well as other renewables. SSE has an important part to play in this.”