Who: River Cottage HQ

Where: Devon

What: Wind turbine

Size: Proven 6kW

Makes: 10,000 kWh

Average equivalent saving: around 4 tonnes of CO2 per year

Earns: About £1,500

THE RIVER COTTAGE STORY

The original River Cottage was set up in 1998 by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, with the aim of living and cooking sustainably. In recent years River Cottage HQ has moved to Park Farm in Devon, and as the base for a huge range of courses, visitor days and special events, RCHQ needs a lot of energy. But, true to the principles of the original, River Cottage wanted to make sure this energy was as sustainable as possible.

River Cottage architect Stewart Dodd, of environmental consultants Satellite Architects, designed and renovated RCHQ on sustainable principles, ranging from the materials used in the buildings to a self‐sufficient rainwater harvesting and recycling system. More recently, they began looking at their energy use and, after analysing the wind resource at Park Farm, decided to install a wind turbine to generate their own renewable energy.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said: “At River Cottage we’re extending our sustainable thinking beyond our food production and consumption to our energy production and consumption too. We wanted to be part of Good Energy’s community of sustainable energy pioneers, so we installed our own turbine at River Cottage HQ.”

They installed a Proven turbine in late 2008, and it’s expected to generate approximately 10,000 units of electricity each year – enough for about three homes. As Good Energy HomeGen customers, River Cottage gets paid 15p for every unit of electricity generated, even if it’s used onsite to cook some of their famously delicious food! When they need extra electricity, it comes from Good Energy: 100% renewable electricity.

By generating approximately 10,000kWh of renewable electricity, River Cottage is displacing in the region of 4 tonnes of CO2.

Hugh and the team are pleased with the new addition to their sustainable smallholding: “We have been amazed by how much it generates,” said Hugh, “It’s great to see it flying around and know we are making our own clean green energy.”

You can see how much electricity is being generated at any one time by the River Cottage wind turbine here: