Associated British Ports’ Port of Newport recently started generating it’s own electricity following the commissioning of a wind turbine.

The 125m tall 2.3mw turbine generates the equivalent amount of electricity required to power more than 1,300 homes.

The £3m investment helps to provide all of the power required by ABP to operate the Port of Newport and will save the equivalent of more than 2,900 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Excess power generated by the turbine will also be used to supply other companies operating on the port as well as being exported to the National Grid.

Ralph Windeatt, commercial manger and chair of the Resource Efficiency Group, for ABP South Wales ports, said: “The installation of this wind turbine at Newport will help us to deliver our sustainable development objective to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities, by powering the port with renewable energy. We plan to further enhance the generation of renewable energy on the port in the near future with the installation of a solar PV array. The turbine and solar array will supply enough energy to meet a large proportion of ABP’s requirements at Newport.

“The Port of Newport is a busy commercial port handling a broad variety of cargoes including steel, forest products, animal feed, fertiliser and general cargo and this commitment to renewable energy will help us to handle these products using our own locally produced power”.