In total, the power utility aims to gave 4GW of renewables capacity, including wind, in UK and Ireland in five years with US$5B of capital investment over the period – approximately 38% of its total spend.

At present, SEE owns and operates just over 2GW of renewables capacity. The capacity expansion programme is dominated by wind power, which it expects to total 2,250MW of capacity by 2013 – which is 50% greater than the target for hydropower.

The main hydro project under development is Glendoe in Scotland. Most of the civils works for the scheme have been completed with breakthrough recently of the TBM-driven headrace tunnel.