CHILDREN at a primary school have named a wind turbine that is being built close to their classroom.
Pupils at Awsworth Primary School have officially called the new structure Winston.
The turbine will be part of Severn Trent Water's Newthorpe sewage treatment works when it is completed.
The school ran the competition after the water company approached them for help to find a name for the turbine. Those that made the final included Gale Force, Windy Cindy and Wind Shine, but Winston, picked by Class 4, was selected as the winning name.
Jon Beeson, renewable energy project manager at Severn Trent Water, said: "It's great to have the schools help to name the turbine.
"We visited the children to present the winning class with a number of iPads and hold an assembly to teach them more about renewable energy and how the turbine will help to generate electricity.
"We're pleased to see the work start on our first wind turbine and we hope to have it working by September 2013.
"It takes a huge amount of electricity to provide water and waste water services to our customers, so this is a great way to help limit the amount of electricity we need to take from the national grid.
"We are already generating around 24 per cent of our companies energy needs from renewables including sewage, hydro and energy from crops grown on our own farmland.
"Although Winston hasn't officially arrived in the area, work has started and we're now underway with building the access road and getting the foundations ready for him to be built."
Once built, the wind turbine will generate around 5,000 mega watt hours of electricity per year, equivalent to supplying the needs of around 1,500 homes annually.
Jane Mainprize, head teacher at Awsworth Primary School added: "The children enjoyed the naming competition and class 4 is delighted to have won.
"Winston will become part of our community for many years to come, so it's great that the children were given the opportunity to learn more about why Severn Trent Water has chosen to put one at the local sewage treatment works."
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