But the sun never shines at Glastonbury

Spotted on This is Bristol was this story about Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis renewable energy effort.

In what will become Britain's biggest privately owned solar farm, the project will see more than 1,100 panels, weighing 22.5 tons, installed on a specially re-inforced barn roof.

He expects the system to pay for itself in 6 years, through the feed-in tariffs as well as reducing his own energy bills.

In a recent call for all outdoor festivals to become greener, you may be interested to know that the Festival organisers have already bought all the used chip shop oil they can which will be used to power the onsite generators.

It's a fascinating story and illustrates what you can achieve with solar energy if you've got a roof big enough.

Click here to read the full article now.

photo credit: foxypar4

Welly good idea - phone & mp3 charging for Glastonbury

The nearest I've got to seeing a live band is watching Abba The Movie so although I'm not an expert on music festivals like Glastonbury (nasty muddy places), I can appreciate the technological endeavours and creative minds that come up with eco-friendly ways to charge mobile phones and mp3 players etc when there's not a wall socket in the nearest bush.

Like the Orange Power Wellies - wellington boots (the optimal foot wear for any serious festival goer apparently) which generate and store power from a thermoelectric power generating sole.

All you have to do is walk around, dance etc and the heat generated by your feet is converted into energy. At the end of the day, you simply plug in your device to the power outlet at the top of the boot to recharge it.

The wellies have been developed by GotWind, working with Orange for the fourth year on their special Glastonbury eco-projects which in previous years have seen a kinetic device which generated energy from dancing and a special foot pump which could generate electricity.

Read more by visiting GotWind.org - click here.

photo credit: russell j smith