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Fancy making over a million quid for your community and beyond from shared renewable energy resources? Climate Curious spent a day in sunny Oxfordshire with the fine folks at Westmill Energy to hear how they took clean shared renewable energy generation into their own hands! 17 years, 3,000 members, and a flock of sheep later; discover how this pioneering energy co-operative got off the ground, and is inspiring communities all around the world to do the same. TEDxLondon’s Deesha Chandra spoke with the founding farmer in question, Adam Twine, as well as the chair of the wind farm co-op, Mark Luntley, and ex-engineer turned volunteer tour guide, Nick Boulter. Tune in to get a closer look at how a group of determined locals set up a cooperative, took on opposition, and created a true home grown clean energy success story.
Learn more about Westmill Energy: https://westmillenergy.coop/about/our-story/
How the community used its million pounds: https://westmillenergy.coop/news/westmill-1million-community-funding/
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Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper
00:00 Welcome to Westmill
01:12 Meet Nick the Guide
01:35 Climate Proof in Real Life
02:57 Why Nick Stays Hopeful
03:42 Wind Turbines Up Close
03:58 Beauty and Purpose
04:48 Community Energy Wins
05:39 Mark and the Wind Farm
05:53 Song of Westmill
06:31 Turbine Names and Time Capsule
07:17 Biodiversity and Open Farm
08:04 Adam’s Origin Story
08:58 Mobilising Through Opposition
10:14 Built on Love
10:37 Closing and Credits
[00:00:00] Welcome to Westmill
[00:00:00] Maryam Pasha: Welcome to Climate Curious Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of climate goodness from our TEDx experts in under 10 minutes
[00:00:11] Josie Colter: in this week’s climate, curious, we are soaking in the sun at [00:00:15] Westmill, a wind and solar farm in Oxfordshire. This isn’t just any old solar farm, though. What makes Westmill so special is that it’s entirely community owned.
[00:00:23] And not only that. Westmill is the UK’s first cooperatively and locally owned renewable energy hub. This [00:00:30] means it’s a hundred percent owned by and for the community. They invited us down to hear the epic 17 year journey of getting their renewable energy ducks in a row to today reaping the rewards of their five wind turbines, who all have their own names, by the way, given by local school [00:00:45] children and over 20,000 solar panels bringing in more than a million pounds, which they are investing back into their local area.
[00:00:52] On why renewables belong in the hands of the community and how to get your own neighbourhood started too. Here’s Climate Curious is Deesha Chandra [00:01:00] with Westmill tour guide Nick Boulter, chair of the Co-op Mark Luntley and Farmer Adam Twine. Stay curious.
[00:01:12] Meet Nick the guide
[00:01:12] Nick Boulter: I’m Nick Boulter. I am, uh, a volunteer [00:01:15] guy here at Westmill. Uh, I’m a retired engineer and I. Have time on my hands. So I thought I’d like to do something useful. And one of those useful things is to come down here and take people round and explain why we have this [00:01:30] solar and wind farm and how it works, uh, and um, what, why it’s a good thing to do.
[00:01:35] Climate proof in real life
[00:01:35] Nick Boulter: Uh, and one of the questions that quite often comes up when I take people round is the fact that, uh, clean energy has become politicised.
[00:01:44] Deesha Chandra: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:44] Nick Boulter: [00:01:45] And people think it’s a good thing to say. Oh, it’s all a waste of money. It’s all unnecessary. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. And the first thing is, well, don’t believe the scientists ’cause they get their funding.
[00:01:55] If they, if they said it was really not a problem like they should do mm-hmm Then they wouldn’t get their funding. So they’re [00:02:00] not gonna tell you that it’s not a problem. So if you don’t believe the scientists, which is a bit bizarre given that science is data driven, then I, I think well talk to the engineers.
[00:02:09] ’cause engineers build things and make things, and engineers know that the climate is changing. [00:02:15] Changing the designs and drainage systems and all sorts to cater for the fact that it’s raining harder and heavier and more intensely, uh, more often. Yeah. And if you don’t believe the engineers, well what about talking to somebody in insurance?
[00:02:28] Somebody in insurance will say to you, [00:02:30] well, of course the climate’s changing. Look at what we’re having to pay out for flooding, for wind damage, for all these other things that, um, insurers pay out for. The other person who you might want to talk to is a farmer. ’cause a farmer is at the sharp end of all this sort of stuff.
[00:02:44] And they [00:02:45] see what’s happening to their crops and they see what’s happening in the winter where they can’t get onto the land ’cause it’s waterlogged. And then it gets very dry in the summer and they find that the crop yields are falling. So the evidence is there. Just, just look.
[00:02:57] Why Nick stays hopeful
[00:02:57] Deesha Chandra: You do this voluntarily, as you said?
[00:02:59] Nick Boulter: I do. Yeah.
[00:02:59] Deesha Chandra: [00:03:00] What’s driving you to keep going and keeping you motivated or hopeful?
[00:03:04] Nick Boulter: Well, I, I, it’s perhaps a bit, a bit selfish in that I, I really enjoy it.
[00:03:09] Deesha Chandra: Mm-hmm.
[00:03:09] Nick Boulter: It’s nice to come down. I get whole loads of different groups. I get young children, I get [00:03:15] students, I get. Just general public academics, you know, get, get the lot.
[00:03:19] You have to do a different pitch to the different people and, and the kids are great fun and that they asked amazing questions like one was, um, who would win in the fight between a T-Rex and a [00:03:30] wind turbine? That’s quite a difficult one to answer actually.
[00:03:33] Deesha Chandra: Who do you think?
[00:03:34] Nick Boulter: I think the, the wind turbine would win.
[00:03:35] I think the, the, um, t rex’s teeth would be pretty, not very sharp by the end of the, the battle.
[00:03:41] Deesha Chandra: Yeah. It’s fascinating.
[00:03:42] Wind turbines up close
[00:03:42] Deesha Chandra: They, I was hearing about the speed about it being 140 miles an hour.
[00:03:46] Nick Boulter: Yeah. The, the end of the blade is going even though they look like they’re going quite slowly.
[00:03:50] Deesha Chandra: Yeah.
[00:03:51] Nick Boulter: The tip of the blade is doing about 140 miles an hour, so that’s pretty fast.
[00:03:55] You don’t wanna get in the way of that. No, no, no. That’s for sure.
[00:03:58] Beauty and purpose
[00:03:58] Nick Boulter: I know a lot of people say they’re a blot on the landscape, and maybe this is ’cause I’m an engineer. I think they’re quite elegant. Mm. It’s a classic form follows function.
[00:04:07] Yeah.
[00:04:07] Nick Boulter: They’re designed to do one thing only and one thing as efficiently as they can, and they’re very good at that.
[00:04:13] I’ve never heard anybody say, [00:04:15] I’ve got this 16th century windmill in my garden and it’s such an awful thing to have. Now we, I think we, we will get used to them. It’s new in the same way. All sorts of things are new. It takes people time to adjust to that. But once they’ve adjusted, [00:04:30] then you either don’t notice it or you see beauty in something that’s designed by a human being.
[00:04:36] People when they come up and stand underneath it and say, oh, well this is big, and you get that sense of power when that, that amount of metal is turning, something’s happening. There’s [00:04:45] that sense of, um, sense of purpose.
[00:04:47] Deesha Chandra: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:48] Community energy wins
[00:04:48] Nick Boulter: And I think that the story of Westmill about the community ownership, uh, and the fact that, you know, they’ve given million pounds to local groups to fund various projects, I think [00:05:00] people start to realise why it’s a, it’s a win-win.
[00:05:03] Really, Adam and the people who set up the original thing had a, a very inspired vision for what this could be. Mm-hmm. And the, the idea that people can firstly benefit from it [00:05:15] financially, there’s that. Feeling of ownership that I think is mean means you are much more likely to feel involved. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and there’s a quite a big movement in this country now about community energy.
[00:05:27] People are seeing the benefits of [00:05:30] communities contributing to getting things to happen. Mm-hmm. But also then seeing the benefits. Uh, uh, and that, that’s a really, really great outcome.
[00:05:39] Mark and the wind farm
[00:05:39] Mark Luntley: So I’m Mark. Yeah. Uh, Mark Luntley. I chair the Westmill [00:05:45] Wind Farm, which is behind us here. There’s five turbines, um, one of the first community energy wind projects in the south of England.
[00:05:53] Song of Westmill
[00:05:53] Deesha Chandra: I heard that there’s something very interesting in connection with music.
[00:05:56] Mark Luntley: Well, well, you are standing, if you look in front of the wind farm here, [00:06:00] there are a series of poles, and those poles are a music sound sculpture.
[00:06:04] Deesha Chandra: Yeah.
[00:06:05] Mark Luntley: Uh, each of them has, at the top there has got a little hole, and that means that when the wind blows through them, each one gives a unique note.
[00:06:14] Deesha Chandra: That’s [00:06:15] really cool.
[00:06:15] Mark Luntley: So you stand there and you can hear the, the Song of West Milk. And so
[00:06:20] Deesha Chandra: do you have to stand up very, really close to hear them? Like it’s
[00:06:22] Mark Luntley: best if you stand in air. Sometimes people say, I can hear those turbines.
[00:06:26] Deesha Chandra: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Mark Luntley: You say, no, no, no. That’s the soundscape. [00:06:30] Okay. That’s the artwork.
[00:06:31] Turbine names and time capsule
[00:06:31] Mark Luntley: The turbines have all got their own names.
[00:06:33] Deesha Chandra: Oh yeah.
[00:06:33] Mark Luntley: Of the neighbour, the local children. Yeah. Yeah. They were chosen by five schools.
[00:06:40] Deesha Chandra: Oh, wow.
[00:06:40] Mark Luntley: Uh, local schools. And so, uh, the children chose it. There’s a children’s [00:06:45] author called Gorky Paul. Who, if you have children, you know, and if people like us, you don’t. Um, but Gorki Paul came here, he lives locally and he chose the name.
[00:06:55] So Gusty Gizmo, Zeus, wind Warrior, all sorts of different [00:07:00] names. And uh, so they’re there. And the children also buried the time capsule as well. That
[00:07:05] Deesha Chandra: is awesome.
[00:07:05] Mark Luntley: That was back in 2008. Wow. So these. Children are now finished university and some of them may well actually now be in the climate [00:07:15] movement.
[00:07:15] Deesha Chandra: Oh, that’s amazing.
[00:07:16] Mark Luntley: Yeah. So yeah.
[00:07:17] Biodiversity and open farm
[00:07:17] Mark Luntley: And this is a working organic farm.
[00:07:19] Deesha Chandra: Yep.
[00:07:20] Mark Luntley: So, um, I hope that we will meet the farmers just going up there. I hope we’ll meet the shepherdess a little bit later. So we have sheep powered grazing of [00:07:30] the, uh, solar park as well.
[00:07:31] Deesha Chandra: Right.
[00:07:32] Mark Luntley: Because it’s, uh, the farm, it’s a sort centre of biodiversity.
[00:07:36] Deesha Chandra: Mm-hmm. It
[00:07:37] Mark Luntley: is one of the most biodiverse spots in Oxford. And the other thing is the landowner, um, who’s really [00:07:45] part of the community always wanted it to be. A a, a sort of an open space. Mm-hmm. So this is a space where people will walk their dogs. It’s not a closed off farm.
[00:07:57] Deesha Chandra: Oh, I see.
[00:07:57] Mark Luntley: So people do genuinely come in here, [00:08:00] um, and, uh, you’ll see people all day, every day coming around.
[00:08:03] Deesha Chandra: Oh, that’s really great. Yeah.
[00:08:04] Adam’s origin story
[00:08:04] Deesha Chandra: So it’s nice to speak to you, Adam, and it’s really fascinating hearing about some of the stories about how you started this programme and this project. Can you maybe tell us a bit about how it all. Came about,
[00:08:15] Adam Twine: well, I was farming, started farming here, realised I needed to diversify my farm as I had an interest in what would be a, a, a diversification, which would work on the farm.
[00:08:24] And I thought, oh, maybe we could put a wind farm up there. That’s where it starts from. The motivation [00:08:30] was because I thought it was important, I believe, I mean, the climate emergency is. And I guess the other bit was I wanted to be a community owned scheme because it feels like, uh, there has to be better ways of doing business.
[00:08:42] And you know, then it being private development. [00:08:45] And what was really lucky was there were other people who were prepared to get behind that at the time as well.
[00:08:50] Deesha Chandra: And that’s what makes it really unique, isn’t it, that you are set up as a cooperative and you’ve brought lots of people along and, and.
[00:08:58] Mobilising through opposition
[00:08:58] Deesha Chandra: Did you find that there was any moments that felt like a bit of a catalyst when people started mobilising around this?
[00:09:03] Adam Twine: It, it feels important to me that, that, uh, common ownership is, is, is, is important. And, uh, and the wind, you know, the landscape, the wind, it’s, it is a con. You know, we, we all, you know [00:09:15] that, you know, and it also felt, you know, we all, for anyone who, who wants to make, who, who’s concerned about. The climate crisis and you know, there’s, you only have so much agency in your own individual life, and this is something about doing something at larger scale.
[00:09:29] We all bring ourselves [00:09:30] on board, don’t we? If we think something’s important enough, we get involved. And, and that’s what you had to do. And because there’s quite a lot of opposition, it wasn’t gonna happen without people getting involved. And, and so you either lean in or you, you don’t worry. And people chose to lean in, I guess it was effectively in two [00:09:45] jobs at once for quite a long time.
[00:09:46] And I can remember. At one stage, uh, sending out an email to one of my fellow directors, uh, at two o’clock in the morning. And, uh, and then, uh, I think getting one back, which is really strange. At that point I thought, oh my God, he’s working as well. But, [00:10:00] but we all did it. That’s how we had to do it. We were all working really hard.
[00:10:03] You know, it’s something about a naive belief. I think that’s what you need to sort of see these things through.
[00:10:07] Deesha Chandra: You built so much trust and we people could see that you have the results that you are
[00:10:11] Adam Twine: yeah, you
[00:10:12] Deesha Chandra: are claiming as well. So it’s worth investing in you.
[00:10:14] Built on love
[00:10:14] Adam Twine: Yeah, [00:10:15] but I, I, I’m, but everybody was doing it for love.
[00:10:17] Mm. No one was getting paid unless they were putting very professional expertise time in Oh, wow. As tech. So all directors did it for love. No one got paid. They put hours of work, all the, as well as the local people who put lots of time in and stuff like that. Yeah. Real, uh, [00:10:30] community work is built on love.
[00:10:32] Yeah. That’s what we all, that’s what we do, isn’t it? And uh, that’s what’s really practical.
[00:10:37] Closing and credits
[00:10:37] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.
[00:10:39] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDx London. Until next time,
[00:10:44] Ben Hurst: stay [00:10:45] curious.
