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Good Energy has been awarded a contract by Oxfordshire UNESCO World Heritage site Blenheim Palace to provide it with 100 per cent renewable electricity.
The deal will see the green supplier meet all electricity demand at the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the palace’s pleasure gardens, Park Farm, the new estates office in Woodstock and its on-site bottling plant.
It also includes the Windrush Industrial Estate, which will allow third-party businesses based there to achieve their own sustainability commitments.
Over the next decade the palace hopes to become a net generator of green energy. It has also invested extensively in photovoltaic (PV) panels, bio-mass boilers and a hydroelectric turbine.
Wiltshire-based Good Energy has been working with Blenheim since 2011 to support its on-site renewable business.
Jacqueline Gibson, sustainability adviser at Blenheim, said: “Blenheim is on track to reducing its consumption of energy, meeting energy demands with renewables, and in time, to becoming our very own green energy supplier – safeguarding energy security in the long term across the estate.
“This new agreement means that, while we continue to increase our own renewable energy production, we are supporting a sustainable energy industry within the UK to further reduce the estate’s carbon footprint.”
Randall Bowen, sales and commercial director at Good Energy, said: “We are delighted to be teaming up with Blenheim Palace to supply the estate with 100 per cent renewable electricity.
“Blenheim is one of Britain’s most important historic sites and they have a longstanding commitment to the environment. Switching to a truly clean energy supplier is the natural choice for the business and the single most important thing the public can do to tackle climate change.”
Founded in 1999, Good Energy owns and operates two windfarms, including the UK’s first commercial windfarm, and eight solar farms.
Earlier this year, Blenheim introduced its green electric vehicle fleet and, more recently, the “Twizy Tours” experience where visitors can explore the estate and its surroundings in the electric vehicles.
Together with electric buggies, this means the energy needed to supply all these transport modes can be met with a green and clean supply.
In response to the announcement Renewable UK’s head of external affairs, Luke Clark, said: “It’s great to see such an iconic British historical site looking to the future and committing to renewables.
“By partnering with Good Energy, Blenheim Palace is playing its part in the UK’s transition to clean energy. It’s another example of the mainstream role that renewables are playing in our energy mix and in modern British life.”
In August the palace received a Gold Green Tourism Award with a score of 88 per cent which put it in the top eight per cent of high scoring businesses worldwide.
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