Appearing at Glastonbury this year alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Elton John will be a brand new pink and purple wind turbine, helping feed the largest greenfield music festival in the world.
Installed by Octopus Energy in a fast-turnaround project, the wind turbine will contribute more sustainable power for food stands, providing energy for thousands of green, clean snacks and meals for over 200,000 Festival-goers.
The eye-catching wind turbine itself is 20m tall with 8m-long blades – the height of five large giraffes – and is finished off with Octopus-brand tentacles wrapped around its purple tower and pink blades. The temporary structure was erected in a single day in William’s Green field, near the famous Pyramid stage.
The wind turbine was only actually ordered at the end of April, demonstrating the speed at which new renewables can be built if considerations and connections allow it. Octopus has also installed solar panels to complement the wind turbine, along with a battery to store the green energy produced.
The wind turbine and solar panels will supply clean energy to a microgrid which will power food vendors in the field so they can serve up snacks made with super low-carbon energy. The system is expected to produce up to 300kWh of energy per day – enough to power 300 fridges.
A new chapter in a long sustainability story
Sustainability has always been at the heart of Glastonbury Festival. The Green Fields area has run on solar, wind and pedal power since 1984, setting a fossil-fuel free standard for the whole site.
The Festival has prioritised environmental responsibility across the site in a number of ways, including:
- replacing chemical toilets with compost loos;
- ensuring waste is carefully hand-separated for single stream recycling at its own on-site recycling centre;
- prohibiting non-compostable serveware; and
- in 2019, banning the sale of single-use plastic drink bottles on-site.
In that same year, Worthy Farm also installed an anaerobic digester and biogas plant power to sit alongside its existing solar PV array, advancing the drive to better embrace renewable energy.
The plan for what will become Glastonbury’s ‘biggest fan’ was agreed at a meeting with Emily Eavis — co-organiser of the Festival and daughter of its founder Michael Eavis — explains Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group:
“When I met Emily I was immediately struck by so many shared values. What was planned to be a short meeting went on for hours as we discussed what makes for a better world. I am excited to be able to not only generate green energy at the Festival, but to work together for the long term too.”
Octopus Energy has already become the ongoing energy provider to Worthy Farm, providing 100% renewable electricity to the iconic dairy farm which hosts the Festival, with more planned for the future.
Octopus, Kraken and ‘try before you buy’
Octopus Energy is a global energy and technology group, driving the affordable, green energy system of the future. Its operations span 14 countries and the entire energy value chain. The group invests in, builds and flexibly manages renewable energy, operating a £6bn portfolio of projects.
Octopus serves 5.3 million customers through its retail arm, and has licensed its advanced data and machine learning platform, Kraken, to support 30 million customer accounts worldwide through licensing deals with energy companies, including EDF, E.ON and Origin Energy.
Kraken enables Octopus to drive the electrification of heat and transport through smart tariffs and innovative cleantech. Backed by pension funds, investors and energy giants, Octopus Energy Group businesses deliver cheaper, greener energy and cutting-edge tech to countries and customers worldwide.
Octopus Energy is offering ‘try before you buy’ temporary turbines to communities who are interested in trialling local renewable energy. Communities can register their interest via an online form.
Further Reading:
- More about Octopus Energy and its Kraken tech platform;
- More on Glastonbury Festival 2023, plus a video about the wind turbine built on site;
- More on how communities can register an interest in hosting a temporary turbine with Octopus;
- Also on SustMeme, Are big banks still secretly in love with fossil fuels?
- Also on SustMeme, Call to invest $35 trillion in transition tech by 2030;
- Also on SustMeme, Green hydrogen to decarbonise single-malt whisky distillery;
- Also on SustMeme, Solar and wind now cheapest for 2 in 3 people worldwide;
- Also on SustMeme, Clean microgrids market to hit $350bn by 2040.
Check out the full archive of stories on the SustMeme Climate & Energy Channel, now available to Sponsor.
