Ecotricity Attempt To Break The Land Speed Record

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This week two groundbreaking Brits will start their attempt to break a new speed record in the most advanced wind powered vehicle ever produced.Dale Vince, Ecotricity MD, and engineer, Richard Jenkins, will attempt to break the 116.7mph land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle (WPV), held currently by an American team, on Australiaâ??s Lake Lefroy.The Greenbird is a highly-evolved vehicle that uses a combination of technology found ordinarily on Aircraft and Formula 1 cars to achieve staggering speedsâ?? with no engine in sight.The chosen name is a nod to Donald Campbellâ??s all-conquering Bluebird, The Bluebird achieved incredible speeds in a golden age of fossil fuels - when oil was cheap and no one had thought that one day it would run out. Fast forward to today and we are coming to the end of the age of fossil fuels and the dawn of the age of Renewables. The Greenbird symbolises this historical watershed better than anything else.â??Cars of the future wonâ??t be running on fossil fuels they will be running on Renewable sources of energy like the Wind. And with todayâ??s technology we can achieve incredible speeds, using only wind powerâ?? said Dale Vince.Vince became involved in the Greenbird project as a result of his dedication to wind-generated technology - his pioneering power company Ecotricity introduced the concept of green electricity to the world, and has been building wind turbines and selling green electricity across the country since 1996. Ecotricity now supplies 35,000 homes across the UK. The company also directly reinvests money that customers spend into new forms of clean power. Over the last four years Ecotricity has spent an average of £460 per customer, per year, on building and developing new renewable energy sources.The Greenbird craft is a culmination of 10 years hard work, thousands of man hours and 5 prototype vehicles. For any powered speed record, the basic principles are pretty straightforward: more power means more speed and it is really only a factor of budget, engine size and guts to raise the record. The Greenbird team saw no challenge in that. â??We wanted to develop a purely technical solution that would deliver ultimate performance from a free and available resource â?? the wind. After 10 years I now have the right vehicle, in the right part of the world with the right team in support. We now just need the weather to cooperate!â?? said Richard Jenkins.Dale Vince and Richard Jenkins will be blogging from the outback in the run up to the attempt. Sign up to RRS feeds and follow the teams progress at www.greenbird.co.uk

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