Octopus Energy builds Glastonbury’s biggest fan to feed festival

Glastonbury Festival attracts a lot of fans, usually of the music-loving sort, but this year’s festival will see a different sort of fan specially constructed for the event.

An Octopus Energy wind turbine will contribute more sustainable power, providing the energy for thousands of green, clean snacks and meals for over 200,000 revellers.

The eye-catching wind turbine is 20 metres tall with eight-metre-long blades – the height of five large giraffes – and is finished off with Octopus tentacles wrapped around its purple tower and pink blades.

The temporary structure was erected in a day in William’s Green field, near the famous Pyramid stage. Octopus has also installed solar panels to complement the wind turbine, along with a battery to store the green energy produced.

Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group, said: “When I met Emily [Eavis, co-organiser of Glastonbury Festival], I was immediately struck by so many shared values. What was planned to be a short meeting went on for hours as we discussed what makes for a better world.

“I am excited to be able to not only generate green energy at the festival, but to work together for the long-term too.”

The wind turbine, which was ordered at the end of April, and solar panels will supply clean energy to a microgrid which will power food vendors in the field so they can serve up snacks made with super low-carbon energy and is expected to produce up to 300kWh of energy per day – enough to power 300 fridges.

Octopus Energy has already become the ongoing energy provider to Worthy Farm, providing 100% renewable electricity to the iconic dairy farm which hosts the festival, and together they plan to increase the use of renewable energy in future festivals.

The partners are also working with the festival’s long-term, temporary power team on site, to explore providing even more sustainable energy to the festival in future years.

Sustainability has always been at the heart of Glastonbury Festival. The Green Fields area has run on solar, wind and pedal power since 1984, setting a fossil-fuel free standard the festival works towards implementing across the site. 

The festival has prioritised environmental responsibility by replacing chemical toilets with compost loos; ensuring waste is carefully hand-separated for single stream recycling at its own on-site recycling centre; prohibiting non-compostable serveware; and in 2019, banning the sale of single-use plastic drink bottles on-site. That same year, Worthy Farm installed an anaerobic digester and biogas plant power to sit alongside its existing solar PV array to help better embrace renewable energy.