British Waterways to erect wind turbines by canals and rivers

Paul Eccleston
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 08/10/2008

British Waterways has announced plans to erect wind turbines at canal and riverside locations over the next five years.

The power generated from 50 turbines will be enough to supply power to 45,000 homes - the equivalent of the Lancashire canal-side town of Blackburn.

British Waterways said only environmentally appropriate sites would be developed and the money from the sale of the electricity produced would be ploughed back into maintaining historic waterways.
The organisation, which looks after 2,200 miles of canals and rivers throughout the UK, claims to be the first public corporation to look at opportunities provided by wind turbines and small-scale hydro power schemes.
Robin Evans, British Waterways chief executive, said: "This is a real example of a public organisation using its land in innovative ways to generate additional income and work towards a more sustainable future.
"We look after 2,200 miles of canals and rivers throughout the UK and, whilst always protecting their heritage, are proactively looking at how we can use this resource to make a contribution towards the fight against climate change.
"We believe that our waterside land could host around 100 megawatts of renewable energy capacity - some 219,000 mega watt hours. If we successfully develop this resource it would mean that the nation's canal network would generate more than 10 times more electricity than it consumes."
British Waterways will be working with Partnerships for Renewables, set up to develop and operate renewable energy projects, and HSBC's Environmental Infrastructure Fund, which will be covering the costs of the development process.
Stephen Ainger, chief executive of Partnerships for Renewables, said: "When Partnerships for Renewables was set up by the Carbon Trust it was in the knowledge that the public sector owned more than 10 per cent of the land in the UK, but was having real difficulty translating this resource into renewable energy generation.
"We believe that this announcement marks the beginning of a trend in the public sector to embrace the potential of renewable energy generation and it is great to see that British Waterways has demonstrated the vision to become a torch bearer for others to follow."
Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner Nick Rau said: "We're delighted that British Waterways is planning to take action on climate change by generating its own safe, clean renewable energy and cutting fuel bills at the same time.
"Community-scale renewable energy projects such as hydropower schemes and wind turbines have a huge role to play in reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and helping Britain to develop a low-carbon economy.
"It is clear that renewable energy generation development could offer substantial economic and environmental benefits right across the public sector and we hope that other public organisations follow the lead set by British Waterways."