Robert Ashton, owner of the Turnpike Business Centre and Mark Kiddleâ€“Morris and Rev Active chairman with the new wind turbines.

Turbines start spinning at business centre near Wymondham

By ADAM GRETTON Friday, June 3, 2011
12:34 PM

A business centre has become the first in south Norfolk to generate its own wind energy following the installation of two turbines.

The 15m-high masts are creating electricity when the wind blows at the Turnpike Business Centre, off the old A11 near Wymondham.

The two 5kW turbines were installed by Honingham Thorpe-based Windcrop and form part of a drive by the business centre at Suton to reduce its environmental impact.

The green energy scheme was supported by the Rev Active project, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and was developed by Breckland Council in partnership with Norfolk County Council and Shaping Norfolk’s Future to aid economic growth along the A11 corridor.

Centre owner Robert Ashton said: “They [Rev Active] carried out a full audit and helped with the cost of improving our heating controls and installing some lower energy lighting. We’re the first business in south Norfolk to get turbines, which not only saves money but makes us very easy to find!”

Turnpike Farm is home to four businesses, Naked Marketing, TWC Data, Golden Foods and Mr Ashton’s own social enterprise consultancy.

Mark Kiddle-Morris, executive member for economic and commercial services at Breckland Council and chairman of the Rev Active board, added: “Turnpike Business Centre is a great example of how any business can dramatically improve it’s energy efficiency, reducing cost and demonstrating commitment to a greener, cleaner future.”

The landowner gets free electricity and Windcrop get the benefit of government incentives and surplus electricity sold back into the grid.

4 comments

Nice to see we have strong differing opinions expressed. However the reality would be that we must find multiple sourced power supplies, to provide energy security, wind is one alternative, solar another, and it’s unlikely we will see coal, nuclear or gas disappear. Maybe we should play the power supply game, which essential recognizes basic facts. 1. We all need stable energy supply. 2 No single solution for power generation source will work for all communities 3. Each community will be responsible for selection the most suitable mixture of power generation sources to best fit their needs. Unfortunately some of the solutions will impact our countryside. Another small item we all over look is storage devices for when the alternatives are not producing. With our current level of technology the sorage devices will have far more impact than the production devices, and in the mean time we will continue to back up each alternative energy source with and expensive duplicate gas turbine that can be put online quickly, to smooth any short fall.

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Paul Morley

Monday, June 6, 2011
All my computers are run from solar energy, even when the sun is not out. Just imagine if every computer in the land did not plug itself into the national grid, just what a saving that would be. Many people think Alternative Energy means supplying 100% of ones needs, but even a few percent is a start. Once you start making your own energy you eventually want to get it to 100%, or even more.

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COLD

Monday, June 6, 2011
At long last the planners have seen sense and allowed wind generators to be erected. Yes, we need more wind farms so hopefully this could be the start of pushing those infamous Nimbys back into the dark ages. Well done.

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Mr T

Saturday, June 4, 2011
Lets have the country filled up with wind turbines,then switch off the existing Power Stations,and watch the ensuing result of blackouts

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Albert Cooper

Friday, June 3, 2011