A company’s drive to reduce the carbon footprint of its manufacturing processes has moved ahead with the installation of a wind turbine with the capacity to fully power the whole of its plant in South Wales.
The £1.5m installation is a joint project between Monier Redland Ltd and new company Alto Prodotto Wind. It is the first of five wind turbines to be funded and installed across the UK by the new company. It is now complete and fully commissioned.
At its most efficient, the PowerWind 500KW turbine will be powerful enough to supply sufficient electricity to fully power the plant. Following Met Office forecasts for wind speeds across the year it is predicted that the wind turbine will provide the plant with one third of its entire annual electricity usage, offsetting up to 740 tonnes of CO2 per year.
When the plant is not in use, power generated will be directed back to the National Grid, providing additional energy to be distributed across the area.
Nick Payne, Monier Redland’s plant manager, said: “The installation of the turbine is the culmination of five years’ planning and we see it as a significant step forward in our objective to reduce the carbon emissions associated with our manufacturing activity.”
