A HANLEY Swan man is hoping to pull the plug on his electricity bills by investing in a wind turbine and solar panels to power his new home.

Retired actuary Ian Bowles has calculated that buying environmentally friendly power generators for the house he is building at Blackmore Park, represents a better investment than finance-based schemes such as annuities.

He has asked Malvern Hills District Council for permission to erect a nine-metre wind turbine and 60 square feet of solar panels. These would provide enough power to run his existing home, which will be pulled down when its replacement, currently being built next door, is complete.

Mr Bowles is hoping they will also cover the energy consumption of the new house.

The 58-year-old predicts that the savings made by using the equipment will increase as natural resources dwindle and the price of power rises.

"Is energy going to run out?" he asked. "Are costs going to escalate? Is our energy cost going to rise faster than inflation? I suspect it might."

Mr Bowles said the size and remoteness of the site should ensure the turbine does not cause a nuisance to neighbours.

"Very few people can see us," he said. Mr Bowles chose solar and wind power in the expectation that they will complement each other throughout the year.

He said: "The problem with solar electricity is you don't get much of it in winter, so I needed something that would be counter-cyclical and wind seemed the obvious choice."

His conviction that the technology would be a good buy was re-affirmed by the power cuts following October's storms, that left his property blacked out for three days.

"That made us more determined," he said.

Mr Bowles is applying for Government grants to offset the cost of installing the energy producing equipment, which will run into thousands of pounds. He hopes to have it set up at the same time as his new house is ready to move in to in summer.