9th September 2008 - Third open day a success

Our third open day was a success and summary presentations can be downloaded from our briefings and reports page. We look forward to our fourth and final open day to be held on January 13th 2009 when we will be presenting a full year's data from most sites. This promises to be a great day, based at the sustainable resource centre at Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. Delegates will be able to see urban wind up close: a coach will tour the sites in the area, and you'll be able to see the monitoring equipment and talk to the team face to face. Registration information coming soon.

20th August 2008 - Fourth interim report published

4th June 2008 - Third interim report published

The third interim report includes introduction of new sites, further data analysis and a status report for all sites as at May 2008. You can download a copy from our briefings and reports page.

21st April 2008 - Shortcomings of government climate change policy delivery exposed by new report

A report on the social and market aspects of the Warwick Wind Trials Project exposes fundamental weaknesses in the government's approach to delivering their climate change policies. This report is the culmintation of two year's reaseach in partnership with customers, industry and public bodies. Read the press release here or download the full report from our briefings and reports page.

11th March 2008 - Second interim report published

The second interim report includes initial data analysis and a status report for sites as at January 2008. You can download a copy of the report from our briefings and reports page.

The first comprehensive results from the trial were published to international delegates at an Open Day for the trials project held at Hill Close Gardens in Warwick.  Participants from as far afield as Sweden, Holland and Ireland joined UK industry representatives to hear briefings from Encraft, BWEA, and Loughborough University. Turbine customers from Warwick and Daventry described their experiences, and the delegates went on a coach tour of Windsave and Ampair installations in the UK Midlands. You can see the presentations from the day on our briefings and reports page.

Further open days are scheduled for December 18 2007, and March and September 2008.

12th October 2007 - Open Day scheduled for 11 December

The trials will be holding an open day and tour of the 10 Warwick installations on 11 December. This promises to be a great day, based at the brand new sustainable resource centre at Hill Close Gardens in Warwick. Delegates will be able to see urban wind up close: a coach will tour the sites in the area, and you'll be able to see the monitoring equipment and talk to the team face to face.

5th October 2007 - Complete trial set now ready

The last Warwick turbines were finally commissioned this week, which gives us a full set to monitor and report on. The website will be fully updated with site details and data by the end of October.

23rd August 2007 - More installations completed

Additional systems have been instrumented and installed in Warwick and Milton Keynes over the summer. A final burst of installations in the first weeks of September are planned to complete the expanded trial: expect significant volumes of data from October.

1st June 2007 - BRE join trials as partner

BRE Trust have agreed to fund monitoring of a further 13 sites across the UK, making the total trial now 23 turbines on a wide variety of building types. The additional BRE funding will take the trial through to August 2008, and enable publication of more comprehensive results.

21st May 2007 - Powerhouse article, Gust of fresh air over small wind

Powerhouse published an article about the Warwick Wind Trials interim report. "In all, the authors are to be congratulated for a rare and realistic analysis of the state of play in urban wind.  The trials initiator and manager Encraft also deserves praise for sticking to a credible, transparent and independent line throughout.  If the long awaited, more extensive Energy Saving Trust household wind trials that are now underway prove as informative as Warwick, all observers will be pleased." Powerhouse issue 34.

8th May 2007 - Princes Drive Turbine installed

Another turbine has gone up at the Princes Drive site. The system is located on the recycle warehouse: a small two-story building in South Leamington. You can visit this site anytime between 10am and 4pm any day except Tuesday.

13th April 2007 - BWEA publish microwind standards

The British Wind Energy Association have published standards for manufacturers to show the output of small wind systems at reference speeds. This is a major step forward for customers, giving them a consistent basis for comparing different systems. All systems following the standard will show power ratings based on a wind speed of 11 m/s and annual enegy outputs for a reference site with an average annual wind speed of 5 m/s. You can download a copy of the standard here.

Among other things this trial project, also supported by BWEA, will show how you can relate your property situation and theoretical local wind speeds to actual average wind speeds on your roof. This will help relate these new standards to real buildings.

2nd April 2007 - Interim report published

You can now read the interim report on the trials, published today. This covers our experiences of the planning, procurement and installation process and the initial technical performance findings from the first trial sites.

13th March 2007 - Trial features on BBC Midlands Today

A short feature on BBC evening news summarised the preliminary findings of the trial.

12th March 2007 - 10 more planning permissions

Another 10 sites have gone through planning with no objections. We expect installations on these to begin within 12 weeks.

4th March 2007- New Windsave data received

A Windsave owner has volunteered to join the trial. We've decided to publish their data as supplementary to the 10 sites we are progressing. See results page for preliminary outputs. If you have a micro-turbine installed from any manufacturer and would like us to monitor the system for you, please get in touch.

31 January 2007 - First installations completed

The first two Ampair systems were installed this week. We have begun monitoring output on Lillington Road, although a high pressure over the Midlands means we have no wind. A further installation is scheduled for next Tuesday, and at least 7 more in the coming weeks.

15 January 2007 - Windsave unable to supply

Windsave have notified us that they are unable to supply the trial.

22 December 2006 - More surveys

Ampair and FuturEnergy have both surveyed sites and will be installing their first systems in January. Windsave's promises are yet to turn into installed systems or firm dates.

20 November 2006 - Installation details finalised

Pre-installation visits to all our sites by Mark Group today on behalf of Windsave. No issues reported and they confirm installations will be done within 4-6 weeks.

10 November 2006 - More planning permissions

Two further planning approvals bring the total to seven.

Windsave have recently published more theoretical technical data on their machine. This has enabled us to do the standard wind industry calculations to estimate likely annual outputs and savings on specific sites.

20 October 2006 - More planning permissions

We've now had three further planning decisions, giving us five sites waiting for systems. Windsave are promising an installation date this week. All our sites also now have grants in place.

21 September 2006 - Planning permission for first systems given

Warwick District Council Planning Committee unanimously voted to grant planning permission for the first two microwind systems in the area. Both are in fact in conservation areas, but the committee felt they were in keeping with other modern installations in the localities, and were supportive of individual and social needs to take some first steps towards reducing carbon emissions.

This keeps us on schedule for installation in October, and means there are no remaining barriers to successful deployment other than technical ones.

It has taken 12 weeks to get planning for our first system, but the planning process has actually worked very well. There was space and time for democratic debate, which the media supported, and the comments of Councillors and officers at the planning meeting suggested they have used the time to become familiar with the technology and comfortable with it. The local political system has now given the planning officers the clear steer they needed to decide on future applications with confidence, and the indications are that these will not need to go to committee and will be decided quite rapidly.

1 September 2006 - More press reports on project

The Courier ran an article and leader on the results of our survey this week, encouraging further comment and feedback. The Observer also followed up on the story, building on its earlier report.

22 August 2006 - Results of first survey published

The results of the first opinion survey carried out by the project were published today. 78 members of the community were interviewed in Kenilworth and Leamington over two days in July. Only 10% of people said they would consider buying a rooftop turbine, but only 8% said they would object if their neighbour applied for planning permission to install one on their own home.

21 August 2006 - Planners seek additional input

The first planning application has been delayed a month to allow time for wider consultation. No objections were received from consultees and neighbours in the statutory time, but as this is the first application locally, the council officers want to make doubly sure.

18 August 2006 - Project features in Leamington Observer

The project was front page news in the local press this week, with a well-balanced article about the first planning application in the Leamington Observer.

17 August 2006 - Additional grants delayed

It appears Windsave have used up the allowance of 5 installations they are allowed to do under the low carbon buildings programme - they are only provisionally accredited. This means they cannot fulfill the pricing commitment they have made to potential customers for the time being as they can no longer offer grants. It will take about 8 weeks to put alternative arrangements in place. This is frustrating, as the project had previously planned to get a local installation company accredited. However, grant and planning applications can now proceed in parallel and we should still be OK for installations with grants where applicable this year, subject to planning. It seems managing the logistics would be much simpler without grants adding another dependency to all projects, no matter how straightforward the forms.

22 July 2006 - First DTI grant secured

The first low carbon building programme grant was secured for a private home participating in the trial today. The process of grant application for householders seems refreshingly simple.

23 June 2006 - First planning application submitted

The first of our selected sites was submitted for planning today, after first checking with neighbours that they would be happy with the installation. The planning process looks straightforward, so far.