Wind car aims to break record

A carbon-neutral wind-powered vehicle backed by the man who put wind turbines in Norfolk could break a world land-speed record.

Dale Vince, managing director of Ecotricity, which has two turbines at Swaffham and engineer Richard Jenkins are to try to go faster than 116.7mph in their vehicle – the Greenbird.

"Cars of the future won’t be running on fossil fuels, they will be running on renewable sources of energy like the wind. And with today’s technology we can achieve incredible speeds, using only wind power," Mr Vince told the Eastern Daily Press.

The design of the Greenbird’s vertical sail, which mirrors an aircraft’s wing, could enable the vehicle to travel at up to six times the speed of the wind.

A spokesman for the team said that unseasonal weather in Western Australia, where the attempt will take place, had delayed initial trials but that they expected to try to break the record next week.

Ecotricity, generates 24.1 per cent of its electricity from renewables, with similar amounts coming from coal, natural gas and nuclear power.