Our Story

Adam installs an anemometer mast on site to determine if Westmill Farm would be an appropriate location for a wind farm. At the time, there were no wind farms in the UK, but inspired by his trip to Denmark, Adam continues to collect data on wind speeds at Westmill Farm.

Although the anemometer returns marginal results (indicating that it is not the best location for a wind farm) Adam decides to go ahead with submitting planning permission for a wind farm at Westmill.

It takes five years, but in November 1999, planning permission for five 50-metre Carter turbines is granted. When planning permission was being sought, British company Carter was producing turbines which had two blades and the capacity to generate 300 kilowatts of electricity per hour. Unfortunately, due to the lengthy planning application process, Carter has gone out of business in the UK by the time permission to build was granted. This left the project with a contractor, but no turbines and no money.

Adam is still moving the project forward largely on his own. Hearing about Baywind, the UK’s first community-owned wind farm, being set-up, Adam decides to reach out to them for support.

After a much more straight-forward application process, planning permission for five 50-metre Vestas V52 turbines is granted. The three-blade turbines have the capacity to generate 0.5 megawatts of power per hour.

At the same time, Energy4All is being set-up, and the company's original founders, Harvey, Annette and Andrew, begin to work with Adam Twine.

National Wind Power (an offshoot of National Power) suggests that Westmill consider using longer turbine blades for better generation. This leads to another planning application being submitted; this time for Siemens turbines.

In the face of local opposition to the wind farm, Adam creates a support group: Wind Over Westmill (WOW). Adam and the support group work hard to provide information, answer questions and counter some of the widespread misinformation about the project at local exhibitions, public meetings, debates, stalls at local shows and fetes and by giving talks to local groups and offering open days on site.

Energy4All formally establish Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative, and prepare to open a share offer.

Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative is awarded as the Best Renewable Energy Initiative in the South-East. The award is sponsored by the Countryside Agency, Government Office South-East, South East England Development Agency, South East England Regional Assembly and Thames Valley Energy.

The Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative share offer opens, giving local people an opportunity to invest in a community-owned wind farm. Raising £4.4m, this share offer makes Westmill Wind the first 100% community-owned wind farm in the south of England.

While trading as a commercial organisation, the wind farm strives to promote cooperative values and principles.

Following previous planning permission for 5 Vestas turbines, local opposition against the wind farm begins to cause disruption for the co-operative. Opposition organisation, Vale Environmental Concerns, had began campaigning against Westmill Wind Farm in 2001. With the increase in size of the new proposed 81-metre Siemens turbines, Vale Environmental Concerns becomes more vocal. What had originally been local opposition to the wind farm expands into national opposition against wind development.

The campaign to get the new Siemens turbines is full of ups and downs, but eventually permission is granted. The turbines have the capacity to produce 1.3 megawatts per hour.

Westmill Wind approaches Siemens to order the turbines, but is told that there are none available. Whilst planning permission was being sought, global prices of wind turbines had increased by 40%, driven by a spike in demand, and turbine availability had been impacted. As the original share offer stipulated that the project needs to be completed within a certain time period, the Board of Directors agree to approach Vestas to place an order. However, Vestas is also unable to fulfil the order, leaving the co-op without any way to purchase turbines.

Siemens then confirm that they have five turbines available, but the co-operative needs to act quickly to secure a contract, or risk waiting at least another two years before turbines would be available again. Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative needs to raise an additional £850,000, and quickly!

A meeting is called with members to discuss the future of the co-operative and explain the situation. Members express frustration at the way the co-operative is being run and it seems as though the project is going to be scrapped and funds returned to members. Then one member changes the mood of the meeting, declaring the project too inspiring to let it fail and insisting that the membership should not let it go. This voice persuades the rest of the membership to back the co-operative and allow for a new share offer to be opened.

With an incredibly short window, and backed by remit from the members, Westmill Wind asks members for more money.

With only one week to go, the co-operative still needs to raise an additional £250,000.

Thanks to enormous work from the Board of Directors and Energy4All, the co-operative successfully raise the funds needed for the turbines.

Construction work starts on the site, with a target completion date of January 2008.

The first two turbines begin generating electricity on the 19^th February 2008, with the other three also generating by the end of the month.

Westmill Wind members vote to establish an Independent Sustainable Energy Trust, with guaranteed annual funding directly from the turnover of Westmill Wind Farm.

Over 600 members and guests attend the grand opening of Westmill Wind Farm. Jonathon Porritt, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, officially opens the ceremony.

Following on from the Independent Sustainable Energy Trust, which was set up in 2008, WeSET is established as an independent charity, with the objective to promote and encourage the development of sustainable energy, with a focus on a 25-mile radius of the Westmill site.

Westmill Wind’s five turbines are named by children from five local schools:

1. Wind Warrior - named by Longcot and Fernham Primary School
2. Gusty Gizmo -  named by Southfield Junior School
3. Spinner X - named by Watchfield Primary School
4. Huff’n’Puff - named by Shrivenham Church of England Primary School
5. Zeus - named by South Marston Church of England School

Westmill Solar Farm was originally built by solar developer, Blue Energy, who wanted to development a solar farm in the area, but was unable to obtain planning permission.

Adam Twine and a team at Energy4All work with Blue Energy to get planning permission for Westmill Farm. However, a legal agreement is put in place to ensure that Westmill Solar Co-operative has the opportunity to buy the solar farm within a year of completion.

With the deadline approaching to raise the money to purchase the solar farm, Energy4All decides to step back from the project to reduce the risk to the company.

The share offer has been written by the Board, a launch event has been organised and the local MP and Mayor are primed to attend, but the share offer has not yet been signed off. It looks like the purchase will not be able to go ahead.

Then, the night before the planned launch event, a Financial Conduct Authority employee agrees to work late to sign off on the share offer. The designer works overnight to finish the design, and hand prints off the share offer documents to ensure that there are copies available for the event.

The co-op had six weeks to raise £6m, and they managed to achieve this, with a loan from Lancashire County Council Pension Fund providing the remaining funds needed to purchase the solar farm.

Already pioneers in the community energy movement, Westmill Wind and Westmill Solar Co-operatives want to further their impact within the community through their annual donations to WeSET.

Watchfield Village Hall is the first community organisation to receive funds to complete a community benefit project, which is used to install a new roof on the building.

The Westmill organisations have continued to look at ways to expand their impact on the community. Visit our Fund Community Projects page to find out more about the community projects which we have supported.

The Westmill organisations welcome their 10,000th visitor to the site. 

Find out more about how you can visit Westmill on our Visit Us page. 

Since 2016, Westmill Wind and Westmill Solar hold joint Annual General Meetings (AGM) for their members. This has enabled better communication and co-operation between the two co-operatives. 

In co-operation with the Environmental Information Exchange (EiE) and Low Carbon Hub, Westmill Solar launches a new scheme, offering free energy audits to community buildings in Oxfordshire, or within a 25-mile radius of the Westmill site.

The assessment identifies ways for community buildings to reduce energy use and save money. Audit recommendations are presented with estimated installation costs, financial savings and pay-back-periods, so community organisations can prioritise which measures they want to fund.

To learn more about this scheme, visit our Community Funding page.

As part of their expanded community benefit activities, Westmill Solar launch their Community Grants Scheme in 2020. This scheme allows non-profit community organisations in Oxfordshire, or within 25 miles of the Westmill site, to apply for grants between £500 and £5,000 to fund community projects.

Visit our Community Funding page to learn more.

Westmill Wind and Solar Co-operatives become the first community energy co-operatives to secure the Fair Tax mark.

The Fair Tax Mark is an independent certification, which recognises organisations that demonstrate they are paying the right amount of corporation tax in the right place, at the right time.

Westmill Solar joins REScoop.eu, the European Federation of Energy Communities.

Following a vote at the 2022 AGM, Westmill Wind and Westmill Solar co-operatives open a Trading Dividend to members who purchase their electricity from Your Co-op Energy.

Westmill Wind, Westmill Solar and WeSET agree to a joint Memorandum of Understanding to set out principles and establish a framework for a more collaborative way of working between the organisations.

Westmill Wind joins REScoop.eu, the European Federation of Energy Communities.

With shared values, ways of working and an existing connection between the organisations, Westmill Wind, WeSET and Westmill Solar decide to strengthen their relationship by launching a new communications strategy for the three organisations, under the umbrella term 'Westmill Energy'.

Westmill Solar becomes the first energy co-operative to receive a loan from REScoop MECISE.

REScoop MECISE and its partners hope that this is the launch pad for an exciting new funding mechanism to establish a sustainable, citizen-driven alternative to the
traditional energy model.

Westmill Wind was one of three UK-based energy co-operatives to contribute to the loan.