Ecotricity goes urban

Miles Brignall
The Guardian
Monday August 20 2007

Wind turbines will increasingly be built in urban and industrial areas as power firms seek to avoid the planning problems that have blighted some rural generating schemes, according to one of Britain's biggest independent renewable energy developers.

Speaking as the blades on three wind turbines started turning at Avonmouth port near Bristol, Ecotricity's managing director Dale Vince said the company was focusing on brownfield sites because planning permission was "just so much easier". The group, which has built wind turbines above the Ford diesel engine plant in Dagenham east London and beside the M4 near Reading, has 20 urban schemes in the pipeline.

"In rural areas we repeatedly come up against a minority of local residents and councils adopting the 'not in my back yard' approach. It's the complete opposite in urban/industrial areas where such proposals have been largely welcomed," he said. "In some cases they have been approved straight away." The turbines above Avonmouth cost £6m to build and will provide 75% of the port's electricity.