Wind of change delivers MoD's first wind turbine

The first wind turbine to be installed on Ministry of Defence (MoD) land was unveiled this week in a move that observers hope will herald a new era of peace and co-operation between the wind energy industry and the military top brass.

Energy giant E.ON installed the 15 metre tall turbine at the Duke of York's Royal Military School near Dover as part of the Land Forces Sustainable Development Action Plan goal of generating 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources.

The company said the new 5kW turbine will help the MoD cut its carbon emissions by 114 tonnes over the 20-year life of the system, while generating around 10.1mWh of clean energy each year.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, E.ON microgeneration sales manager Colin Grenville said the installation represented something of a breakthrough for the wind energy industry.

"Up to now, wind energy was seen as a bit of a no go for MoD sites as there had been a number of issues with radar interference," he explained. "This project shows what can be done even where there has been historic opposition.

He added that the company was in talks with the MoD about installing further small-scale wind turbines at other sites around the UK.

"This is not the only scheme we've quoted for the MoD and we are certainly seeing growing interest from the MoD and other areas of the public sector since the introduction of the feed-in tariff – not just for wind energy, but also for solar photovoltaic installations."

The new turbine is the latest in a series of developments suggesting the MoD is keen to both bolster its green credentials and improve links with the wind energy firms.

The wind energy industry and the MoD signed a co-operation agreement to address concerns about the impact of new wind farms on radar signals back in 2008 and since then considerable progress has been made in the development of new technologies that promise to resolve interference issues.

As a result, the MoD announced earlier this year that it was to install a new radar system that would allow it to drop its objections to five proposed wind farms in the Greater Wash area with a combined capacity of 3,000MW.