SmartGen - Case Studies

Community Wind in Cornwall

In autumn 2006, the South Wheatley Environmental Trust, based near Launceston, completed their 15kW wind turbine project ready to make the most of the Cornish winter winds. Although a small community, South Wheatley was keen to become part of the solution to Climate Change and Bill Andrews was glad to lead the project as chairman of the Trust:

“We all felt that there was too much talking about Climate Change and not enough action so we decided to do something about it and set our sights on installing a wind turbine. Putting all the funding together and applying for planning permission was a labour of love but now the turbine is in and we’ve started generating green electricity that we are getting paid for, it feels well worth the effort.” Bill Andrews

Micro Hydro in Devon

Sowton Mill stands on the Teign river in Devon and has been harnessing the power of the river for over 400 years, initially to mill corn and from the 1950’s to generate electricity. In the eighties, the Ossberger crossflow turbine was installed a few yards further down river from the original mill site, enabling an improved head of 4 meters that increased power output fivefold. The water flow is now controlled automatically but in the early days, the owner’s were out in all weathers to man the sluice gates.

Sonia Newton manages the business side of the hydro generation and the 5 acres of beautiful gardens and orchards surrounding the mill.

“Our contribution of renewable electricity generation may seem small but our effort combined with many other independent generators is helping Good Energy to deliver 100% renewable electricity to their customers. I look forward to the day when the majority of Britain’s power will come from renewable generation.”

Solar Power in the Community

David Bolster of St Aldhelm’s Church watched the completion of the solar installation in the summer of 2005, having spent a number of years thinking what they might do with the sun. He said, “In the first instance, we were not thinking about panels, but excessive heat from skylights in our large hall! Some lateral thinking suggested turning a problem from the sun’s energy into an asset.

We could only afford the project if we had significant funding and the key to our success for gaining the grant was to present this as an educational project. After a series of sermons on the environment, covering all sorts of topical issues from global warming to ecology; now it was time for us to put words into action.

The scale of our project makes it a pioneer in the UK and it has taken us some months to find a company who can pay us for the power we generate. Good Energy’s SmartGen scheme is providing us what we are looking for and we hope our efforts are paving the way for many similar projects to follow.”