Baywind Energy Co-operative
Baywind Energy Co-operative is a fantastic example of what a community can achieve when people pull together. In 1996, a community in Cumbria purchased two wind turbines on a development built by a Swedish company, giving local residents a stake in the production of renewable energy. When the developers decided to withdraw from the project, the community purchased the other three turbines on the site.
Baywind now owns and runs six turbines, which generate enough power to supply around 1,400 households in the nearby town of Ulverston. More than 1,300 people own shares in Baywind, with 40 per cent living in Cumbria or Lancaster. The success of Baywind has inspired the group to set up Energy4All, a social enterprise which helps people to set up similar projects across the UK.
NESTA’s Vicki Costello says: “Baywind provides a great example of what we hope to help finalists in the Big Green Challenge achieve. We’re looking for ideas which can be trialled in one area and then re-created elsewhere”.
Mike Swain, science editor at the Daily Mirror, visited the Baywind project as part of the newspaper’s coverage of the Big Green Challenge. Watch the video on their site
