Date: 17/01/2011

The rolling countryside of this part of west Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire), indeed is often referred to as the 'Huntingdonshire Wolds'. It is an agricultural landscape, formed by a patchwork of lightly wooded valleys and more open higher slopes. The fields to the north of the Park rise quite considerably and do have an open aspect, especially to the south-west.

This provides an ideal position for the siting of Wind Turbines, and two years of study and investigation are about to conclude with the erection of two Gaia Wind Turbines in February 2011. Planning permission was granted during the summer of 2010 and we are enormously grateful to everyone who has supported and encouraged the project. They will be sited about 500m north of the Park entrance.

A pair of 11 kw Gaia Turbines will produce a significant proportion of the electricity needed to heat our animal housing and power the shops and other facilities at the Park. They will slash both our electricity costs and our carbon emissions, and form a very permanent and public marker of our committment to conservation in its very widest sense.

We do not know of any other European Zoo which has its own Wind Turbine(s), so these could well be a first!

The Gaia units are mounted on 60' high lattice-type towers and have twin blades with a class-leading diameter. They run at a constant speed regardless of the wind conditions, and their design has been refined in Denmark where they have been made and used for many years. The result is by far the most efficient machine available.

More information can be found at www.gaia-wind.com

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  Gaia Wind Turbine

  11 kw Gaia Wind turbine on lattice tower, like the two at Hamerton Zoo Park. They can also be installed on a tubular 'mono-pole'
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  Gaia Tubine and wild geese

  This efficient modern machine is proved to have no impact on the natural world around it, and produces clean electricity for over 20 years with minimal servicing.
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  Gaia Turbine being erected in Denmark

  Denmark has very similar wind speeds to the UK. But historically the Danes have not had the buffer of abundant natural resources, and for this reason wind technology is very advanced and Denmark is a World leader in turbine design and production.