Europe's largest onshore wind farm will be completed in the next few weeks.

Developed on Eaglesham Moor, near East Kilbride, Scotland, 140 operational turbines will soon supply enough electricity to power 180,000 homes. Scottish Power Renewables developed the site, and has also just submitted an application to expand the wind farm with 36 additional turbines. That would take the total power generation from 322 megawatts to 452 megawatts.

Scottish Power is the third largest electricity distributor and largest wind power producer in the UK. The company was acquired by Iberdrola, S.A. (MCE:IBE) in 2006.

Green Chip International editor Sam Hopkins reported from Scotland that same year, when the country's wind energy industry was really just getting off the ground. He saw that the opportunities there were huge, and especially pointed out that Scotland's waning oil and gas industry is giving way to a wind-oriented manufacturing base that could be a world leader.

Fast-forward a few years, and Sam's forecast of Scottish wind power strength is gaining more validation by the day.

And here in the United States, 85 330-kilowatt turbines could soon be replaced with 42 one-megawatt turbines on an old wind farm near the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Byron, CA. If the project is approved, construction could be completed by 2010, with the new turbines producing three times what's currently generated by the older, less-efficient turbines.

Jeff