Member Article

Bishop Auckland’s Groundwork in wind turbine partnership

Bishop Auckland social enterprise Groundwork NE & Cumbria has partnered with Lanchester Wines to erect a wind turbine on land owned by the North East company.

The high-yield turbine, located on Greencroft Industrial Estate, Annfield Plain, County Durham, is expected to produce more than one million KWh of electricity per year, enough to power the equivalent of 250 homes.

It will meet all the electricity demands of Groundwork’s Greenhouse office complex and also contribute to powering operations at the adjacent Lanchester Wines site.

Any surplus electricity will feed into the National Grid.

The turbine is owned by Lanchester Wines, which has been in charge of the installation project, on land provided by Groundwork.

Groundwork has previously conducted an energy audit at Lanchester Wines which recommended that the company embrace renewable energy.

This is the latest green investment by Lanchester Wines, which already has three wind generators on the site, and costs are expected to be repaid by the revenue generated by the Feed in Tariff.

The newly installed 50 metre high turbine has a blade diameter of 52 metres with the speed of its blades controlled by an internal computer system that constantly monitors wind speed and direction.

Its blades will start to operate in wind speeds as low as 3.5 metres per second, which is classed as a light breeze. In the event of excessively high winds, the blades will tilt away from the direction of the wind and stop turning.

It replaces a smaller less efficient turbine on the site.

Chief executive of Groundwork NE & Cumbria, Kate Culverhouse, said: “As a socially responsible organisation that encourages companies to improve their green credentials and reduce their environmental impact, we are determined to practise what we preach.

“We have a close working relationship with Lanchester Wines and are grateful that the company has made it possible for us to power our Greenhouse complex with wind energy.

“The installation of this type of wind turbine is a coup for the area as it is only the third of its kind to be set up on an Industrial estate with only 100 similar turbines in the whole of the UK.”

Founder of Lanchester Wines, Tony Cleary, said: “Our aim is to become the world’s first carbon-negative drinks business and our wind turbine investment forms part of that strategy.

“The energy audit by Groundwork prompted us to embrace a green agenda and the wind power complements the installation of a heat pump to modulate office temperatures, solar panels, the installation of electric vehicle charging points and a fleet of low-emission Volvo & Nissan Leaf vehicles.”

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