Clean energy plans for Windsor Great Park homes and offices

An ambitious plan to heat homes and work places on the Crown Estate in Windsor using woodchips from the Queen's forests has been unveiled.

Managers on the estate want to move away from the use of fossil fuels by building a biomass boiler at Russell's Farm, which would turn the chips from 3,100 hectares of the Queen's forests into green energy for homes and offices in the Great Park village where Crown Estate employees live.

A planning application has been submitted.

The new structure would be constructed on a brown field site that once housed the old sawmills for the estate - it has recently been used for farm storage.

Andrew Dunning, surveyor of works on the Crown Estate, said he was committed to providing sustainable energy.

He said: “The biomass plant would use forestry material which currently has minimal value to generate heating energy for the Estate Village, offices and the York Club."