Europe's largest onshore windfarm has been given the green light by the Scottish Government.

First Minister Alex Salmond said the 152-turbine Clyde windfarm near Abington in South Lanarkshire would be capable of powering up to 320,000 homes.

This development will bring £600m of investment while during construction the project is expected to create 200 jobs, with approximately 30 staff employed when fully operational.

Speaking ahead of the World Renewable Energy Congress in Glasgow, the First Minister said: "The Clyde windfarm will represent a very important step in the development of renewable energy in Scotland and in meeting shared European targets. It is another step towards making Scotland the green energy capital of Europe.

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"The Scottish Government has an ambitious target to generate 31 per cent of Scotland's electricity demand from renewable sources by 2011 and 50 per cent by 2020.

"Today's announcement makes it virtually certain that the 2011 target will be met early and exceeded by the end of this Parliamentary term and represents a significant milestone on the way to achieving the 2020 target.

"Scotland has a clear, competitive advantage in developing clean, green energy sources such as wind, wave and tidal power.

"We have put renewable energy at the heart of our vision of increasing sustainable, economic growth."

The Clyde windfarm will be built in clusters of turbines on either side of the M74 motorway. It will have a total capacity of 548 Megawatts (MW). At present, the largest consented windfarm in Scotland is Whitelee, on Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow, which is currently under construction and will have a total capacity of 322MW.

Currently the biggest operational windfarm in Europe is the Maranchon windfarm in Guadalajara, Spain which has a generating capacity of 208 MW.

(GK/JM)