ScottishPower casts doubt on £800m wind farms

ScottishPower yesterday warned that its £800m programme for wind farm investment was in doubt unless there were some "quick" changes in policy from the Government.

Reporting full-year results, the utility also revealed its new reduced dividend payout policy. This will see shareholders take a cut of about a third in the annual dividend for the current 2003/04 financial year, as a result of the company's divestment of Southern Water.

The company said it planned to spend £500m building wind farms and a further £300m would be needed to connect this power to the national grid. However, two problems exist: one, is that airport radar systems mistakes wind turbines for aircrafts; the second is there has been no decision about who will pay for connecting the wind farms to the grid.

For the year ended 31 March 2003, ScottishPower announced a dividend of 28.7p a share. For the current year, it is expected to be cut to 19p. Group pre-tax profits were £697m, up from a loss of £939m the previous year.