Wind resistance to innovation

The Ridgeblade is a very different kind of wind turbine because it's visually unobstrusive. It's a world away from the giant windmills and windfarms which get lovers of the countryside so hot under the collar.

Developed and designed in Yorkshire, it is claimed to be easier on the eye than conventional wind farms. But its inventors say their efforts to sell their innovation in Britain have been hamstrung by red tape.

They are being supported by the Country Land and Business Association who argue that this is a case study which proves that the rules governing the approval of small-scale renewable electricity generation equipment are not fit for purpose.

Dean Gregory, from a Knaresborough-based company The Power Collective, is behind the device called Ridgeblade.

"It's a long thin wind turbine which sits directly on top of

a roof ridge, only adds about 12 inches to the height of a house and hopefully produces enough electricity to make it very, very worthwhile for the house-holder," he says.

The wind flows over the roof and feeds into the turbine through slits in the box.

The idea came from an engineer who cut his teeth designing turbine blades for Rolls Royce.

The Ridgeblade is at a relatively early stage of development, but Dean is optimistic about its potential.

"We're hoping they will produce around about 15 to 17 Kilowatt hours a day, which for most houses is between half and three-quarters of your needs."

The bonus for a householder installing a small-scale renewable generator is that surplus electricity can be sold to the National Grid under the Feed in Tariff (FiT ).

But this will not apply to the Ridgeblade. Dean Gregory explains, "We have to go through something called micro-generation certification for wind turbines, which is a little bit difficult for us at the moment, simply because the design of the turbine is not what the standards test." He says the test is designed for "propellers on poles" – conventional wind turbines – and not for devices like his. And without certification it would not qualify for the FiT. The Ridgeblade seems to be caught in a no-win situation in that part of the test requires the turbine to be away from any roof – but the whole point of the Ridgeblade is that it is roof-mounted.

Dean Gregory says the tests have been designed by the same people who make conventional turbines. "Some of the people who are involved in being, shall we say, the gatekeepers of those standards are drawn from the small wind turbine industry.

"These are the guys that are already selling propellers on sticks and it's understandably not in their interest to change the rules and regulations." The certification body is the Microgeneration Certification Scheme who do the work on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

We asked the MCS to respond to the points raised by Dean Gregory, but they declined.

He says if his company can't get certification here it will prosper elsewhere. "We will just concentrate on foreign markets. We've got a huge interest from Europe, South Africa, Australia, and South America. We could have an extremely successful business if we never sold one in the UK."

The CLA, the Country Land and Business Association, shares the concerns about the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. Oliver Harwood, who advises the CLA on renewable energy, says, "We have always said that the Microgeneration Certification Scheme is not fit for purpose. We have argued that the MCS rules and regulations add cost and prevent innovation, just as Ridgeblade has found."

Dean Gregory adds he, "doesn't think there was much malice in the way things were done, it's just that realistically when

you're looking to put a standard together then you put one together for wind turbines as they are at the moment.

"It does stifle innovation a little bit. This system was put together by the last government and it does tend to make an industry out of bureaucracy."

CW 20/11/10