SSE gets planning permit for Scottish wind farm

LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has been given planning permission to build an 87.5-megawatt wind farm at Gordonbush in northern Scotland, the company said on Wednesday.

The planned wind farm will have 35 turbines and SSE plans to start work as soon as possible.

"This is a good result for SSE," Chief Executive Ian Marchant said in a statement. "Gordonbush is the fifth SSE wind farm to receive consent in the last 18 months or so."

Although Britain needs thousands more megawatts of wind power to be built over the next 10 years if it is to stand any chance of reaching renewable energy targets set by the European Union, some developments have been held up for years in the British planning system.

"While the Gordonbush proposal has spent almost five years in the planning system, there are encouraging signs that the planning process is beginning to speed up," Marchant said.

"Given the scale of the energy challenges facing the country, it is important these encouraging signs represent a sustained commitment to a better planning process." (Reporting by Daniel Fineren)