Yorkshire businessman pioneers wind powered sports stadia
GREEN issues are set to move up the sports agenda after Middlesbrough FC’s agreement to make it the UK’s first football club to use a wind turbine to become self-sustainable for electricity use in a deal with a Yorkshire businessman.
Under the terms of the deal, Middlesbrough FC will site a 136m-tall wind turbine supplied by renewable energy developer Empowering Wind Group, in the Riverside Stadium’s overflow car park ready to start generating electricity from May 2014.
Riverside Stadium, which opened in 1995, is a significant MIddlesbrough landmark with a 34,988-spectator capacity.
The 1.5MW wind turbine will provide all the electricity required for the stadium for the next 20 years, replacing power, which would otherwise be drawn from the National Grid with carbon-free energy, generated by the wind.
Empowering Wind’s North Yorkshire-based chief executive Paul Millinder said: “Middlesbrough FC should be congratulated for its far sightedness with this pioneering initiative which is the first of its kind in the UK and, for a major sports venue of this scale and with this generating capacity, the first in Europe and possibly worldwide.
“The Middlesbrough turbine demonstrates our strategy of developing renewable energy where it is needed and where the presence of a turbine is justified by offsetting substantial on-site power demands that would otherwise be drawn from the grid.
“The turbine starts generating power at a wind speed of only 2.5 metres per second, creating power even on days of a relatively gentle breeze.
“This initiative demonstrates the financial and environmental benefits to football clubs and other arena-based sports organisations.”
He added: “I am keen to engage with other football clubs and sports stadia. We are already in talks with two other UK football clubs and I envisage many other sporting venues to be contacting us to follow Middlesbrough FC’s example.”
Mr Millinder, who is based near Pickering, says that while precise details of the Middlesbrough FC deal are confidential, the selected model turbine, in a location with a similar wind profile and power usage, would save about £3.2m during the next 20 years at current energy inflation rates. Environmentally it would save an estimated 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the environment each year.
Middlesbrough chief executive Neil Bausor said: “Energy use is a key factor for all businesses and we have worked incredibly hard in recent years to reduce our costs significantly. It is exciting to think we will become the first UK football club to have a completely sustainable energy consumption programme.
“As well as being a good for the environment, it will also enable us to make extra savings and enhance our aspirations on the field.”
Andrew Lindsay, head of corporate finance at Yorkshire law firm Lupton Fawcett, Lee & Priestley, who advised on the deal, said: “This arrangement by such a high-profile football club is expected to be watched closely by stadium-based sports bodies throughout the UK. It is good for Boro, good for the environment and good business for all concerned.”
Legal advice to Middlesbrough FC was provided by Michael Brown, partner at Bond Dickinson in Newcastle.
