London landmark for Ford

Ford Motor Company has teamed up with wind farm developer and green electricity trader Ecotricity to build three wind turbines at its car manufacturing plant at Dagenham. Sited only 16 kilometres from the City of London -- the capital's financial hub -- the wind cluster will create a major new landmark on the banks of the River Thames. If permitted, the 1.8 MW Enercon machines from Germany will provide 100% of the electricity requirements of Ford's new "clean room" assembly hall, being built to expand production of high-tech diesel engines. Ecotricity will finance, build, own and operate the turbines and sell the output to Ford at the same price as mainstream electricity. The project is Ecotricity's second merchant wind initiative which enables organisations to have their own wind turbine but without any investment cost or risk. The first was a single turbine for the Sainsbury's supermarket chain. One of the Dagenham turbines will feature a 65 metre high public viewing platform as part of Ford's planned visitors' centre at Dagenham.