Cornish charity invests in Scottish wind farm for school

Children at Bishop Cornish School in Saltash have learnt about renewable energy

A charity in Cornwall has invested in a Scottish wind farm on behalf of a school to try to protect it from rising energy costs.

Bishop Cornish School in Saltash also hopes the wind power will help it become net zero.

Head teacher Tracey Fletcher said the move would bring about "welcome savings" to the school's energy bills.

She said it would also teach the children they can make a difference.

Bishop Cornish Education Centre Charity is one of 18 businesses and 5,603 individuals that have bought into the Kirk Hill wind farm co-op, in Ayrshire, raising a total of £13.2m and making it the largest amount raised by any UK Co-op Society in a single offer, according to the trade association Co-operatives UK.

Ellie Rowlands said the school children asked some good questions about sustainable energy and how wind farms are built

Ellie Rowlands, from Ripple Energy which manages the Kirk Hill wind farm project, said: "At Ripple Energy we build wind turbines and other large-scale renewable projects, and then let businesses and individuals, and schools, own small parts of them and then they get that cheaper, greener energy supplied to them, and they get savings on their electricity bill."

She visited the school to teach children about wind and "what it means for them owning part of a wind farm that's 500 miles away".

Ms Rowlands added: "We've had some really interesting questions from the kids, everything from how does floating offshore wind work, how do you stick the turbines together, how do the people who build them get out of them once they're built."

Head teacher Tracey Fletcher said it would also teach the children they can make a difference to a global climate crisis

Tracey Fletcher, head teacher at the school, said, "For us, it is much more than the welcome savings on our ever-increasing energy bills, we will be able to provide our children with the understanding and knowledge that they too can make a difference to a global climate crisis that we can no longer ignore."

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