Video: Green’s Windmill in Sneinton will be powered by chip fat on still days
A Nottinghamshire windmill will be powered by chip fat as back up to when there’s no wind thanks to a donation from the Nottingham Civic Society.
Green’s Windmill in Sneinton is still turning grain into flour today and they’ve got an upgrade to help them on days the wind isn’t blowing.
Head miller Andrew Hallam said: “When there’s no wind I need a contingency plan, and our current machine converts stones into energy.
“We’re currently in the process of converting a vintage diesel engine to run on chip fat and hopefully wire it up to this machine to power it.”
The investment is designed to make the windmill more eco-friendly compared to the technique currently used.
Heritage officer Jamie Duff said: “A windmill is very green – it uses the wind and it makes the flour.
“When we don’t have that wind, we can’t make the flour which is a bit of an issue so the idea was to invest in an electric set of stones to still make flour on non-windy days.
“However, that’s not very green and goes against everything windmills are about.
“So we wanted to install this engine to power the electric set of stones using a renewable and sustainable source.
“As well as being able to mill on non-windy days, we are going to reinvest the money we have saved on the electricity bill into the five core themes of this site – art, science, heritage, environment and maths.”
The Nottingham Civic Society donated money towards the engine on Thursday (December 21).
Executive chair of the society Hilary Silvester said: “The windmill is environmentally friendly and it’s involving the local business community with their used chip fat.
“We are interested in all aspects of the city’s environment including its historic environment and the mill is a very important part of that.
“There are very few cities which have a windmill in the middle!”
Chairman of the Green’s Windmill Trust Tom Huggon said: “The donation has been gratefully received because it’s the ending of a long project which various people have helped to fund.
“But this was just what we needed to make it all work.
“We’re saving costs, it’s recycling, it’s green and it’s everything we’re keen on doing here.”
