Octopus Energy's 'Gusty Spinfield' helps to power Glastonbury Festival

‘Gusty Spinfield’, the pink wind turbine from Octopus Energy, is returning to the Glastonbury Festival to help power the Williams Green area including Car Henge and new venue Terminal 1.

Standing 28 metres tall – the height of over six London double-decker buses – the temporary wind turbine can produce enough green electricity to power the equivalent of 300 fridges.

Gusty Spinfield turbine’s energy will supply power to food traders and bars for the festival, helping supply meals and drinks for 210,000 Festival-goers.

Named ‘Gusty’ by Octopus customers in a competition last year, it is complemented by a battery so that surplus wind energy can be stored and not go to waste.

Octopus’ EV charging platform ‘Octopus Electroverse’ is also shared with Festival-goers wanting to charge en route and Festival employees can lease EVs through Octopus Energy’s ‘Salary Sacrifice’ scheme.

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These are the latest steps in the Festival’s sustainability plan. The Green Fields area has run on solar, wind and pedal power since 1984. Worthy Farm already has an anaerobic digester, biogas plant and solar farm to run on clean, green electricity.

Chemical toilets have been swapped for compost loos, waste is managed at its on-site recycling centre and non-compostable serve ware and single-use plastic bottle sales are banned.

As part of the Octopus ‘Octoplus’ rewards scheme, two lucky customers have won free tickets, the use of an EV for return transport and access to the ‘Octopus Electroverse’ platform to charge up on the journey.

Commenting in a release was Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy: “The winds of change are blowing through Glastonbury Festival.

“We’re thrilled to be back for a second year, showing that renewables can be built quickly and generate much-needed cheap green electricity where needed. The Festival has long led the way in sustainability in its sector, and it’s brilliant to be part of this and bring even more clean solutions to festival-goers this year.”

Octopus Energy’s announcement comes as the company and the Festival deepen their partnership. Octopus has been Worthy Farm’s energy provider since last year, supplying 100% renewable electricity to the dairy farm.

This year also marks Jackson’s Glastonbury stage debut, who will shed light on how clean energy is revolutionising communities and driving sustainability within the music industry during his talk, Outrage+Optimism: Music, Climate, Creativity.

Glastonbury Festival is taking place from 26 June to 30 June, 2024.