Scottish Power Renewables has announced plans to completely rebuild Whitelee Windfarm, near Glasgow, replacing its ageing turbines with fewer but significantly larger ones as the site nears the end of its operational life after roughly 20 years. The £1.5 billion "repowering" scheme matters because it would nearly double the site's electricity output while demonstrating how ageing UK wind infrastructure can be renewed rather than simply decommissioned, at a time when more than half of Great Britain's onshore wind capacity is expected to reach end-of-life within a decade.

Under the plan, Whitelee's existing 215 turbines would be replaced in three phases with around 124 turbines, each roughly 110m taller, boosting output from 539 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, enough to power about 650,000 homes. The project, expected to take 10 years and become fully operational by 2035, has had an application submitted to the Scottish government's energy consents unit, with a full planning application due by the end of next year; the company says 99% of the old turbines will be recycled and the works could generate around £330m for the Scottish economy, while public access to the moorland site is expected to be maintained throughout construction.