Europe's Greenest Zoo?
18/10/2012
Following the successful installation of our two Gaia Wind turbines early in 2011, these machines produced 65,000 kwa of electricity during their first year - considerably more than expected. They generated power on 346 days out of the 365.
Because our site has proved to be so suitable, permission has just been granted on 15th October 2012 (by Huntingdonshire District Council), for us to replace the turbines with two larger Endurance models. These together will produce more electricity than the Park needs at the moment, giving some extra to sell back to the National Grid and excess capacity to cover some of the future developments at the Park.
The Endurance turbines sit on monopoles 36m tall, and should produce between 5 and 8 times the power of the Gaia ones.
We are told that Hamerton Zoo Park will the the only Zoo in Europe to be completely self-sufficient in power. Solar panel arrays and a biomass waste boiler due to be completed soon, further illustrate our commitment to become Carbon Neutral or better. We hope that new animal buildings planned for a couple of years time will be heated by Ground-Source Heat Pumps too..
The new turbines will be erected during November 2012, with the old ones dismantled at the same time. These are already sold, and will soon go into production on another site in the UK. We would like to thank our partners in this project, Hallmark Green Power, Endurance Wind Power and Lloyds Bank - and also all the people and organisations supporting us during the year it has taken to get permission for their erection; and also HDC and our local Councillors for their thoroughness and patience.
Lloyds, the BBC, local media and schools will be present on site to observe the erection (by Hallmark Green Power) of the new turbines onto their pre-formed foundations, towards the end of November.
A new 'Renweable Energy' section will be added to our web-site over the winter, detailing our work in this area and giving an insight into the local battles we had to get this far. A new guide-book (and on-site interpretation centre sponsored by Hallmark Green Power) is planned too, hopefully for the 2013 season.