The three wind turbines standing over the docks at Avonmouth are a long-overdue advertisement for Bristol's vibrant wind power industry. It is ironic that Bristol and South West-based companies develop wind projects all over the globe yet find it impossible to make things happen here in the UK.
Dale Vince of Ecotricity has been battling the planning system for years, but the Avonmouth turbines were the first in the region to go through the planning process without going to appeal. Ecotricity won an Ashden Award for the project, part of its Merchant Wind Power scheme to encourage big business to tackle climate change with onsite wind projects
The all-important planning application was project-managed by the Landmark Practice of Bristol, which went on to handle the successful application for two further 3MW turbines recently put forward by the city council - the first by a local authority in the UK. Landmark is also working with Wessex Water's wind power development team.
However, one has to travel further afield to see major Bristol wind projects in action. Winner of the Queen's Award for Export Enterprise in 2000, Garrad Hassan (GH) employs over 270 people in eighteen offices around the world and has acted as Banks' or Owners' Engineer for over 18,000MW of operating wind farms. Working always on a consultancy basis, GH has a client list that includes all the major wind turbine manufacturers, developers, banks and lenders; it carries out analysis of energy policies, market surveys, regional resource studies, research and development for the UK government, the EU and NGOs.
Closer to home, Garrad Hassan funds the CSE's wind power workshops for school children across the South West. The workshops encourage children to think about harnessing the power of the wind by providing them with information about wind resource and turbine design principles; the children then take part in a design challenge to design and build their own miniature turbine using a desk fan and other readily available materials.
Also based in Bristol, Wind Prospect built the UK's second wind farm in 1992 and has since become the most successful green field wind farm developer in the Southern Hemisphere. The company has built wind farms with over 1,000MW generating capacity, with many more at different stages of development and advised on projects totalling more than 10,000MW. Like GH, Wind Prospect is also involved in marine renewables, an industry just now coming into its own.