By MICHAEL BLACKLEY
PLANS are being drawn up to build the world’s biggest wind farm in the North Sea at a cost of ?1.2 billion.
Irish firm Airtricity, which aims to become one of the leaders in renewable energy production in the UK, wants to put up about 5,000 turbines that would produce more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity.
It is believed the plan could pay back the development costs within about six years.
The scheme would be a major boost to the Scottish Executive’s target of generating 18 per cent of Scotland’s power from renewable sources by 2010, rising to 40 per cent by 2020.

The Scotsman’s Online Debate on wind farms, which began on Friday, has already received hundreds of responses, with an even split between support and opposition for wind farms.
On Friday, the television botanist, David Bellamy, added his voice to the campaign against wind farms. He argued that they are not a reliable source of wind power and are also a threat to birds and bats.
There have also been claims that the impact on communities with wind farms nearby has been so extreme that property prices have dropped. Among the main complaints are that they are noisy and the large strobing shadows can be highly irritating for home-owners.
However, Gillian Bishop, a spokeswoman for Views of Scotland, a leading campaign group, said she was also opposed to the idea of off-shore wind farms.
"The main problem that we identified in our national campaign was that we simply don’t believe wind farms will work," she said. "We do not believe the main claims that they will cut emissions or provide green jobs. As there is not a significant cut in emissions, we would urge that the money be invested elsewhere.
"It is very important that we do cut CO2 emissions but wind power is not the answer."
The Airtricity move follow a joint venture into wind farms in the North Sea by Scottish & Southern Energy and Canadian company Talisman.
 were not available for comment, will need to link up with a national grid operator, such as National Grid Transco, ScottishPower or Scottish & Southern Energy.
Denis Kervy, a spokesman for Scottish & Southern Energy, said the opposition to wind farms came mainly from a vocal minority.
 wind farms that is extremely vociferous but small in number. I’m sure the government will be extremely pleased to hear about developments such as this. It will help the UK to become a leading country in the use of renewable energy technology," he said.
At present, only 4 per cent of Britain’s power is generated from renewable sources.
The Dublin-based Airtricity group last year opened its first fully-operational Scottish wind farm at Ardrossan in Ayrshire, which is said now to provide green energy to 20,000 homes. The group has also recently won consent for a 49-turbine development near Stirling.
Scottish & Southern Energy is involved in various renewable energy projects, including Britain’s largest deep-water wind farm in the Moray Firth.
The project is being used to test plans to build a wind farm of up to 200 turbines - capable of generating enough electricity to power the city of Aberdeen - 12 miles off the coast.
That it is an Irish company which is planning to build the world’s biggest wind farm will add ammunition to those who have complained that Scottish companies are failing to take advantage of a proliferation of schemes around the country.
Last week a German company, REpower, announced that it will propose to the European Commission plans to build the world’s biggest wind turbines 25 kilometres off the east coast of Scotland as part of a demonstration project. All of the equipment used for the REpower 5M turbines is to be made in Germany.
In December, the island of Gigha switched on the power at Scotland’s first community-owned wind farm. Three 100ft-high high turbines now provide the island with two-thirds of its power.
Gigha - owned and run by the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust, which was set up by its inhabitants - will put all the money raised from the sale of power to the national grid to rebuild homes which had fallen below a tolerable standard and to pay off debts.
The wind farm cost ?400,000 to plan and build but profits are anticipated to be initially ?75,000 a year, rising to ?135,000 after a few years of operation.