UK - Supermarket giant Tesco applies for wind turbine to be built in Thornbury

Tesco in Thornbury is making sure every little helps in the fight against climate change. The supermarket giant has recently made an application for a wind turbine to be built at its Thornbury store.

Tesco has applied to South Gloucestershire's planning department to build a 10.6 metre-high 6kW wind turbine in the car park of its Midland Way store.

The turbine would produce enough electricity to supply four households but all power from the turbine would be used to power the Thornbury store only and would be connected to an on-site electricity network.

A Tesco spokesman has said the aim of the application is to help reduce the company's carbon footprint and is part of a national scheme, which could see all Tesco stores across the country have wind turbines. Tesco stores in Nottingham and Oldham already have such schemes in operation.

Felix Gummer, spokesman for Tesco, said: "We are rolling out a series of wind turbines across the country at various stores. "The scheme is part of Tesco's commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2020.

"These particular turbines are designed specifically for built up areas because they are silent and they work very well with low wind speeds. "Traditional wind turbines of wind farms only use wind from one direction but these can work with wind from different directions."

It is expected the turbine would take up two car-parking spaces to the side of the store and a knee-high barrier would be placed around the turbine to prevent damage from passing vehicles. This application joins a growing trend for harnessing green energy sources in and around Thornbury.

Similar small scale applications for wind turbines have been made by Almondsbury Sports and Social Club and The Castle School and in Alveston Stroud-based power company Ecotricity, has applied to build three 99-metre high wind turbines on farmland off Old Gloucester Road in Earthcott Green.