13th December 2007

An Experimental wind turbine is hoped to revolutionise green home electricity generation. Ecotricity's bid to have a 10.5m-high "urbine" for two years next to its 62m-high bigger brother at Nympsfield was approved by council planners on Tuesday.

If the prototype succeeds, Ecotricity, which is known for its bigwind projects, could enter the "mini-wind" market, making wind turbines for homes in cities all over the world, in Stroud.

Photo: Dave Vince with Green party's Derek Wall and Martin Whiteside earlier this year.

Ecotricity's founder Dale Vince said it is one of three or four it will use to refine the design: "It's for household use. It's a machine we are inventing that will work in urban areas where the wind behaves very differently. We are calling it the Urbine and we are very excited about it. We have been working on it for about 12 months and we have had Honda's F1aerodynamics team doing morphing work."

 
Cllr John Marjoram (Green, Trinity) said climate change meant greener ways of generating power had to considered, and the committee backed the application. To Cllr Janet Wood, who spoke against turbines, he said: "You are going against the grain."