Five more turbines could be built at Europe's largest onshore windfarm.

Operator ScottishPower Renewables submitted a planning application to the Scottish Government last week to extend Whitelee Windfarm, near Glasgow.

£500m invested so far in the project supported an average of 290 full-time equivalent construction jobs over the past five years, the company said.

And it said the extension, if approved, would support 30 to 60 construction jobs.

The extension would generate up to 12MW of renewable energy and increase the windfarm's overall capacity to 551MW.

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It would be the third extension at the site, where 72 new turbines have been constructed since the initial phase of 140 devices opened in May 2009.

ScottishPower credits the windfarm with allowing it to contribute almost £2m of community funding to the local area.

It said that if this latest extension is built, annual payments for local projects would total approximately £1m over the next 25 years.

The five new turbines would be located to the west of the existing site in East Ayrshire

Simon Christian, UK Managing Director of ScottishPower Renewables, said:

"There has always been potential to extend Whitelee - it is well located near to major roads, it has access to a strong grid network and there is high demand for the electricity generated from heavily populated nearby areas.

"Although our proposals for the third extension are relatively small, we think it is important to make the most of this excellent site."

(NE)