Springwatch Spawns Powerful Opportunity

Midas will work with Off Grid Energy to provide power for the formative stages of BBC’s Springwatch, one of the first programmes to win the broadcaster’s environmental award, albert +, introduced last year.

To achieve the standard, programmes’ senior staff must share sustainability goals with cast and crew, measure their carbon footprint and, most importantly, adopt sufficient low-carbon production techniques to address their overall impact.

While the contract is just a small step across the Springwatch threshold, coupling Midas’ biodiesel generators with Off Grid Energy’s ‘Grid to Go‘ power supply slashes running hours and fuel costs. A perfect fit with albert+.

“The Midas generator plugs into the loads the client wants to use and we sit in between, soaking up the spare energy. It means when demand is slow, at night for instance, the generator can go to sleep while our battery provides the power,” Danny Jones, Managing Director at Off Grid Energy, explains. “Across the country thousands of litres of fuel are wasted by generators ticking over and it’s great to get together with the Midas method, which doesn’t see our solution as a threat.”

Gareth Wildman, Production Engineering Manager for the BBC, comments: “At this stage, we’re only committing to biodiesel for non-broadcast critical elements of Springwatch, to power the IT infrastructure, security lighting and the offices for the early team and so on. But we’re very excited to put a toe in the water with Midas. The company has a great reputation and there is every potential for it to flourish here in the future.”