Ecotech Centre, Norfolk
The UK’s first big windmill
When we built this in 1999, your average windmill in the UK stood about 30m tall. This one was more than twice that height and three times the capacity - the UK’s first megawatt class windmill, in fact.
It paved the way for the next generation of windmills.
Not least because we installed a unique viewing platform, which enabled planners and members of the public alike to climb to the top and experience wind energy from the heart of the machine not just looking up from the ground.
Sir Norman Foster designed the platform for us and this is still the only wind turbine in the world that’s open to the public - to climb!
Ten’s of thousands of people have made the journey to the top, and a few brave souls have jumped off…. abseiling for charity.
Standing in the back garden of the Ecotech centre, a wonderful wooden framed building on the edge of Swaffham, it provides enough green electricity to power a third of the homes there.
Vital statistics
Site address - Ecotech Centre, Swaffham, Norfolk
Running Since - 15 Aug 1999
Turbines - 1
Rotor diameter - 66m
Capacity - 1.5MW
Green electricity per year -
3.5 million units
Equivalent homes - 1,100
CO2 savings - 3,161 tonnes
