A new wave of larger wind farms with taller turbines are to be built across rural Scotland, under radical plans unveiled by SNP ministers to generate half the country’s energy needs from renewable sources.

The Scottish Government’s first energy strategy backed the development of more wind farms “and– increasingly – the extension and replacement of existing sites with new and larger turbines.”

As many established wind farms come to the end of their lives over the next decade, an accompanying policy statement said they will need to be “repowered” with new turbines and admitted that manufacturers are now building taller towers with greater blade tip heights.

Unveiling the plan in the Scottish Parliament, Paul Wheelhouse, the SNP Energy Minister, said he wanted onshore wind to play a “growing role” in power generation and insisted developments would only be allowed “in the right places.”

But the policy statement disclosed that Scotland already has 281 onshore wind farms with 3,274 turbines. When developments under construction or in the planning system are included, the total increases to 460 wind farms containing 5,609 turbines.