Octopus energy is bringing clean, green energy to Manchester’s winter festivities by installing its innovative portable wind turbine, at Skate Manchester.
The first-of-its-kind partnership will see the 15-metre tall, 15kW turbine partially powering the rink.
With sustainability at the heart of Skate Manchester, the turbine now makes its debut in Manchester to celebrate the city’s growing role in the UK’s energy transition.
Octopus and Skate will be running an online customer competition to name the festive turbine, with the most creative entry winning ten VIP tickets for Skate Manchester.
The community programme, powered by Octopus, will see both rinks support over 100 community partners, giving over 5,000 people the opportunity to skate for free or at a heavily discounted rate. As part of the partnership, Octopus Energy customers can also take advantage of a 2 for 1 skating offer as part of its customer reward scheme, Octoplus.
Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport at Manchester City Council, said:
“Manchester is proud to be leading the way in creating greener, more sustainable events. By incorporating a clean energy solution like wind power into our festive celebrations, we’re not only reducing environmental impact but also sharing our vision of what a greener future might look like. It’s another step towards our goal of becoming a zero-carbon city.”
Cllr Pat Karney, Christmas spokesperson for Manchester City Council said:
“We all know that what Manchester does today the world does tomorrow and using a wind turbine to help provide power to our fabulous seasonal skating rink is genius. Whilst we do love a white Christmas here in Manchester, we’re actually going all out this year to make Christmas in our city as green as we possibly can, with a Santa’s eye to the future to help protect and preserve our Christmases for years to come. “
