Team Green Britain

The creation of a charging infrastructure will assist the authority to reduce carbon dioxide emissions within the National Park, meet the needs of electric vehicle owners / visitors by enhancing the opportunity for them to enjoy Dartmoor's special qualities and encourage better links between urban and rural communities.  The project will have an accompanying website www.evfriendly.co.uk which will contribute to a range of integrated, co-ordinated and branded travel options that map the charging infrastructure and link to local tourism (e.g. accommodation, attractions and restaurants), as well as providing information via blogs, articles and images on the development and rationale for the network. I am hopeful that the project will be supported with 20K for funding from Dartmoor National Park because it is consistent with the aims of the Government's Plugged in Places Infrastructure Strategy, the Two Moors Sustainable Transport Plan and Devon's Transport Plan 3. It also ticks a number of boxes for local authorities wishing to reduce their carbon emissions. At a recent presentation to the Dartmoor Partnership I received eight expressions of interest to install EV charging stations at tourism destinations.

People say that turbines are a blot on the landscape and provide a fixed point on the Moor, when walking on the Moor is about walking in the wilderness. As someone from an urban background who now lives in the country, I would be prepared to sacrifice the wilderness to generate more electricity from wind inland and offshore.

Okehampton college is already leading the way in our community with its programme of retrofit, solar PV and wind turbines. We are supporting them by taking a lead with businesses, showing how the combination of generating electricity at home with Solar PV, using electric vehicles and conserving energy at home and work, can deliver benefits all round. It helps reduce our carbon footprint and our overheads, cuts the use of fossil fuels and helps save the planet at the same time.

There are so many fantastic projects amongst us. It was colleagues running community gardens that inspired me to help set one up here in Okehampton, as treasurer. The retrofit work that others are doing has made me look again at our own house and at other ways to lead the way in the community. We are looking at putting in sophisticated electronic monitoring systems that monitor the use of electricity right down to the appliances in all 52 rooms in our house (some task)! The system has been showcased by Keith Webber from Okehampton College, part of the EDF Energy 'Pod' initiative that promotes sustainability in education.

Our pump is very energy efficient with a coefficient of performance (COP) rating of up to 4. This means that the heat pump produces 4 units of heat energy for every 1 unit of electricity it consumes. Within temperature ranges of -3°C to 10°C, the COP for our machine is fairly stable at 3-3.5. However in mild weather, the COP of our air source heat pump can be up to 4.

EvFriendly makes the connection between travel and tourism facilitating Electric Vehicle travel into and around Devon. Most exciting is that we will probably be installing the very first Green Motion Nissan DC Quick charger in the UK here in Okehampton on Dartmoor. I have surveyed locations in Ivybridge, Totnes and Okehampton for likely sites if further funding bids are successful. Western Power are hot on the case as the quick chargers require an 80KW draw down from the grid which is a hefty pull on the electricity supply. Devon County Council officers / members are watching my project with interest as they still have made no investment in EV infrastructure within the County. I am hopeful that if successful installations are made it has the potential to lead to some pilot funding to help enable the project to be rolled out across Devon. I have been into schools with my car and to many 'green car shows' spreading theEvFriendlymessage that low carbon travel is the way to go!

The creation of a charging infrastructure will assist the authority to reduce carbon dioxide emissions within the National Park, meet the needs of electric vehicle owners / visitors by enhancing the opportunity for them to enjoy Dartmoor's special qualities and encourage better links between urban and rural communities.  The project will have an accompanying website www.evfriendly.co.uk which will contribute to a range of integrated, co-ordinated and branded travel options that map the charging infrastructure and link to local tourism (e.g. accommodation, attractions and restaurants), as well as providing information via blogs, articles and images on the development and rationale for the network. I am hopeful that the project will be supported with 20K for funding from Dartmoor National Park because it is consistent with the aims of the Government's Plugged in Places Infrastructure Strategy, the Two Moors Sustainable Transport Plan and Devon's Transport Plan 3. It also ticks a number of boxes for local authorities wishing to reduce their carbon emissions. At a recent presentation to the Dartmoor Partnership I received eight expressions of interest to install EV charging stations at tourism destinations.

Every day I wake up and look across the Okement Valley to Dartmoor which is a really special environment, remote, inhospitable but full of wildlife and cultural heritage. Alive with water flow in the rivers and leats that run down from the Moor through Okehampton; it is a walkers' paradise, desolate with its granite tors - a wilderness to be enjoyed and experienced by all. Just the quality of the air encourages birdlife and butterflies, moss and lichen in abundance in our garden and the warm and wet climate provide an abundance of home grown food and lush green surroundings for our chickens to enjoy. Is there a better place in the world to live?