Tesco plans wind turbine at Old Kent Road store

Last year the supermarket chain was forced to rethink plans for a major expansion of the Old Kent Road site after Southwark Council raised concerns about the impact of a larger store on the viability of the Elephant & Castle regeneration.

The Italian-made Ropatec WindRotor has a capacity of 6 kilowatts and the energy it produces will be fed directly into the store to reduce its consumption of mains electricity.

Tesco argues that the turbine will act as a landmark and encourage shoppers to think about green issues.

Notable wind turbine installations in SE1 include two large turbines on the roof of BT's Colombo House in Blackfriars Road and the still incomplete array of turbines on the roof of Palestra, home of the London Development Agency.

The noisy Colombo House turbines have attracted complaints from Roupell Street residents to the west and Rochester Estate residents in the east.

There are also two experimental turbines on the roof of Ashenden on the Heygate Estate south of New Kent Road.