London's first wind park nears completion

19 April 2004

Ecotricity's construction of London's first wind park and Europe's first city based wind park at Ford's Dagenham estate is nearing completion. The two 85m high turbines will provide 100% of the electricity requirements of Ford's new Clean Room Assembly Hall which is being built to expand production of high-tech diesel engines at the Dagenham engine plant. All of Ford's diesel engines assembled at the plant will now be produced using wind power.

Ecotricity, the market leader in the supply of green electricity to businesses and consumers, began work at the start of the year preparing two Ford sites at Dagenham for the Norman Foster designed turbines. A police escort will accompany the delivery of the turbines on separate trucks to Dagenham from Tilbury Docks where they are transported from Germany. The turbines' blades will then be lifted into place by a giant crane on 23rd and 27th April (dates and times to be confirmed).

Dale Vince OBE, Ecotricity's Managing Director, added: "This is one of our biggest projects to date and we are delighted to be behind London's first wind park. Our turbines will be providing Ford with enough electricity to power over 2,000 homes and we hope that this project will raise awareness of wind power as a viable alternative energy source."

Ford of Britain chairman Roger Putnam said: "The Dagenham and East London skyline has changed now the installation of Ford's wind turbines is almost finished. There were very good business and environmental reasons for embarking on this project - green power from Ecotricity is not costing Ford a penny more and there are huge environmental benefits too. Thousands of tonnes of power station emissions are saved by switching our electricity source for the Dagenham Diesel Centre to wind power."

Prime Minister Tony Blair opened Ford's new high tech Dagenham Diesel Centre in November last year, marking a £325 million investment in diesel engine engineering and manufacturing on the estate. The two wind turbines will generate 100% of the electricity requirements of the plant, which produces a high performance 2.7 litre V6 engine in its 'Clean Room' Assembly Hall. Inside engines are assembled in sterile conditions, as required for the latest common rail fuel and turbo systems. The first car to feature the new V6 Dagenham diesel engine is the Jaguar S-Type, now on sale.