Case Studies
Whitelee Windfarm Habitat Management Area
ScottishPower will demonstrate that wildlife can successfully coexist with windfarms at the site of Europe's largest onshore wind power development at Whitelee Forest.
Construction of the 322 MW 140 turbine project south of Glasgow is scheduled to start in summer/autumn 2006 - however, our ecologists are already planning how to build in and improve biodiversity at this vast site.
ScottishPower is a leader in the field of developing Habitat Management Areas (HMAs) to mitigate for the impact of our windfarms.
At Whitelee, a Habitat Management Area extending to 2,480 hectares is proposed - the largest area to be devoted to biodiversity conservation at any of our windfarms by a considerable margin.
Currently, the land is a mixture of open heathland, blanket bog and commercial forestry.
We intend to optimise the structural diversity of the existing heathland and blanket bog and remove 900 hectares of non-native Conifer plantations - around 2.25 million trees - to allow the regeneration of moorland and blanket bog.
By restoring pristine upland habitat and managing it to promote biodiversity, we hope to achieve an increase in populations of indicator species such as Red Grouse, Common Snipe, Eurasian Curlew and other upland birds.
Whitelee will be the third site for our ongoing research into peatland restoration and its Habitat Management Plan will benefit from the methods pioneered at Cruach Mhor and Black Law Windfarm Habitat Management Areas, in Argyll and Lanarkshire respectively.
Whitelee is also an important site for Black Grouse - a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species due to its 74% decline in UK population between 1981 and 2004.
Three leks - where breeding birds gather to display and mate - are present within the Habitat Management Area and we will take action to sustain grouse numbers by improving the quality of lekking sites and improving habitat for the species.
ScottishPower currently operates Habitat Management Areas at four other windfarms covering an area of 3,424 hectares.
The mitigation areas at Whitelee and other windfarms in the planning process would bring the total area managed for biodiversity at ScottishPower's windfarms to 57 km2 - an area approaching the size of the city of Dundee (65 km2).
