Tesco gets wind of a good idea

Jul 3 2009 by Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

SUPERMARKET chiefs are checking out new ways of powering their store.

Bosses at the Tesco store on East Lane, Paisley, have been given planning permission to build a new wind turbine in their car park.

The turbine will stand 10.6 metres high, similar to a lamppost, and is a unique design with six aluminium blades on the rotor on a vertical axis as opposed to the more traditional horizontal axis.

Tesco hopes this means the turbine will be less intrusive but still provide enough energy to help power the store.

All the energy produced by the turbine will be fed directly back into the Paisley store – each turbine produces enough electricity to run four average households – and should reduce carbon emissions at the store by around 24 tonnes a year.

One letter of objection was sent to the council by a resident living next to the store complaining about the impact on the view from their garden.

However planning bosses dismissed this as the rear wall and tall trees behind the residents’ back garden would help shield the turbine from their view.

The turbine is meant to be designed so that it makes no sound but the council has made it a condition of planning approval that noise levels are controlled.

Tesco is also hoping to be given planning permission to open a superstore in the Wallneuk area of Paisley and, if council chiefs approve those proposals, the company intends to install a wind turbine there to provide power.

Corporate affairs manager Jennifer Duncan said: “We are really pleased with the news that Renfrewshire Council has approved our application for a wind turbine at our East Lane store.

“This decision takes us another step closer towards our target of reducing the carbon footprint of our existing stores across the business by half by 2020.

“We continue to invest in environmental technology, not just at our existing stores, but our new stores too.

“We recently opened our greenest store yet in Dumfries that has a carbon footprint 70 per cent less than an equivalent store built in 2006.

“And this is the type of green retailing we want to bring to Paisley at Wallneuk Road.”

The car park site was chosen to make sure it was a suitable distance away from nearby homes and make best use of the prevailing south-west wind.

However, if the wind turbine doesn’t operate for two months due to a lack of wind, Tesco has agreed to take it down.

The Tesco store on Newmains Road, Renfrew, has a similar turbine built in its car park.

Planning approval was given for this in January 2008.