Wind Turbines Named and Launched by Children

Tow Law and High Hedley Hope Wind Farms – County Durham’s first wind farms – were officially opened recently by children from the Tow Law Millennium Primary School and the Blessed John Duckett R.C. Primary School.

LONDON, England – May 23, 2002 [SolarAccess.com] The six children were winners of a drawing competition run by National Wind Power (NWP) and The London Power Company (LPC), the owners of Tow Law Wind Farm and the High Hedley Hope Wind Farm respectively. “NWP and LPC were pleased to be involved with the local primary schools and the drawings completed by the pupils are both innovative and thoughtful,” said Alan Moore, managing director of NWP. “The winners were offered an opportunity to think up names for one turbine each that would be displayed on plaques on the turbine towers for the life of the wind farms. All six came up with novel and interesting names and also won £300 (US$436) for each of their schools to help the pupils learn more about Renewable Energy.” The winners were invited to officially open the wind farms by unveiling one of the plaques with a chosen turbine name. To a count down chanted by the watching guests, the winners unveiled “High Breezer” turbine, named by 11-year-old Ross Marley who was the only pupil to draw the site under construction. The two wind farms were completed in December 2001. Together they will generate enough clean electricity to meet the average needs of about 3,000 homes annually, which is roughly equivalent to the total consumption of the village of Tow Law averaged over a year. The two wind farms are already making a significant contribution towards the government’s target of producing 10 percent of the UK’s electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2010 to help combat climate change.