Oxford joins forces with Carbon Trust to run commercial wind turbine

The single commercial wind turbine, to be hosted at the city's Horspath Road Athletics Track, will be run by the Carbon Trust’s Partnerships for Renewables, a company set up in 2006 to develop renewable energy projects on public sector land. It is the first public sector project to be funded through Partnerships for Renewables and would be similar in scale to one developed by nearby Reading County Council.

Under the joint venture, Partnerships for Renewables will pay for the development costs, while in return for providing the land, Oxford City Council will receive an annual payment for the benefit of local taxpayers.

The Horspath wind project is still subject to detailed environmental and technical investigations, but work will be carried out over the coming year with the aim of submitting a planning application by 2011 if results of technical and environmental work prove positive.

Councillor John Tanner, board member for a Cleaner, Greener Oxford, added: "At this stage we want to put up a test mast to see if the wind power is really there as we believe it is."

Although it is not yet established how much energy the turbine would supply, Stephen Ainger, chief executive of Partnerships for Renewables, said there was potential for the site to supply green electricity to a number of businesses in the vicinity of it. "We would be very happy to discuss this opportunity with local electricity users as part of our development work," he said.

Tanner said both the Oxford City Council and Partnerships for Renewables were committed to ensuring that the local community was central to the development process. "I hope everyone will support this wind turbine plan as a practical way of helping to save our planet," he added.

Partnerships for Renewables hopes the move by Oxford will encourage other English and Welsh local authorities to take action to generate renewable energy and additional revenues on their land assets.