Humber Marsh Nature Reserve
For many years Wind & Sun's Headquarters has been based at Humber Marsh, a 13 acre private wetland nature reserve which we own and manage.
Unfortunately, the reserve is not open to the general public, but can be visited by special arrangement.
The Buildings
These incorporate office areas, a mechanical workshop, warehousing, electronics service workshop, showroom area and two classrooms for training and visitor reception.
The main building itself has been constructed using green building techniques. In order to keep heating requirements to a minimum it incorporates a high degree of thermal mass wrapped in Warmcell recycled paper insulation with large south facing windows to maximise passive solar gains. The upstairs office incorporates green oak cruck frames to create a wonderful open space.
The site is powered by by our own wind and PV generation. These systems are used for demonstration purposes and for training courses that we hold.
Performance and energy production is monitored using a Sunny Webbox
See our Sunny Portal visualisation
The Reserve
In order to minimize disturbance to both the marsh and wildlife the land is made accessible by a network of purpose built walkways and paths linking together the different habitat features and hides. This allows the majority of the land area to be left 'fallow' so wildlife is undisturbed.
The reserve is a valuable oasis in a highly cultivated agricultural area which is taken advantage of by wildlife and wild flora in many shapes and forms. There are several distinct habitat areas at Humber Marsh, the most extensive being the marsh itself.
There are ponds, some of which are linked by a waterway; a disused railway embankment, which has been colonised with woodland and grassland species; different types of hedgerow; some young woodland and a wildflower meadow.
Unfortunately, the reserve is not open to the general public, but can be visited by special arrangement.
Aims of the site include
- To extend and develop the previous work of the Nature Reserve.
- To provide a visitor site for viewing renewable energy systems incorporating state-of-the-art equipment and engineering practice in a fully accessible and demonstrable manner.
- To provide a professional training centre for users and installers of renewable energy systems.
- To collaborate with other similar sites to produce a network of complementary, environmental and energy centres.
