SSE reaches one gigawatt milestone for its onshore wind farms

As storms battered the country, the energy giant SSE yesterday said it had more than one gigawatt of onshore wind-farm capacity in operation for the first time, enough to power 800,000 homes for a year.

SSE, which operates in the London area as Southern Electric, said that solid progress at its wind sites in Clyde, Griffin and Gordonbush in Scotland and Slieve Kirk in Northern Ireland meant that its onshore wind capacity had increased from 40 megawatts six years ago to more than 1.15gw now. This means that onshore wind now represents just over a 10th of SSE's generation capacity.

Ian Marchant, the chief executive, said: "The safe and timely delivery of new assets is a priority for SSE and passing the one gigawatt milestone for onshore wind-farm capacity is a very positive development as we start the new year." The company has 30 onshore wind farms in operation with another 48 projects in progress.