Giant British wind farm plans blown away

The Scottish government has rejected plans to build one of Europe's biggest onshore wind farms due what it said was the "significant adverse impacts" on the local environment.

Ministers in Edinburgh decided that the 500-million-pound (one-billion-dollar, 625-million-euro) project would have threatened rare and endangered bird populations and damaged peatland on the remote Isle of Lewis, northwest of the Scottish mainland.

The proposals were turned down on the grounds that they did not comply with European Union law protecting sensitive environments.

The Scottish government has a number of powers separate from the British government in London, including planning and environment policy.

Lewis Wind Power, a consortium of AMEC and British Energy, had proposed constructing 181 turbines, with a capacity of 651.6 megawatts -- enough to meet the average domestic electricity requirement of more than 20 percent of Scotland's population.