WORLD WIND ENERGY NET

London's first wind turbine will be erected on the South Bank near the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 11 November. The turbine will provide power for "Shell Electric Storm", a stunning new event of colour, light, mist and sound among trees lining the South Bank, opening on 18 November as a world-first for London. Installation of the 43-metre wind turbine in the South Bank coach car park near Hungerford Bridge is being managed by Renewable Energy Systems (RES), the leading UK-based wind energy company and part of the Sir Robert McAlpine group.

As principal contractor and project manager, RES has driven the wind turbine element of Electric Storm from the drawing-board to reality. The turbine site near Hungerford Bridge and the Royal Festival Hall has been used for many different activities over the past centuries, including the Festival of Britain in the 1950s and preliminary works were undertaken in close consultation with English Heritage. The work involves the construction of a unique foundation design involving piles of 27 metres depth in an area with complicated ground conditions in the centre of a busy major city - a first for RES as well as for London.

Chris Morgan, Engineering Director for RES, said; "We have directed the construction of the Electric Storm wind turbine in keeping with the aims of the architects of this exciting new installation and our own high standards of safety, quality and minimal environmental impact. The turbine will be a stunning spectacle for Londoners and visitors to the city. It will demonstrate the contribution wind energy can make to our cultural lives as well as to our daily power needs.

Excavation work at the site began on 16 October and the turbine is expected to be operating by 18 November, when Electric Storm will open. Shell Electric Storm has been created by Make Communications and is supported by Shell, the DTI, Fortis Bank, EDF Energy and Norton Rose.