ELECTRICITY produced by two wind turbines was used to run some of the machinery at a pharmaceutical plant for the first time yesterday.

The 135ft high wind turbines are expected to reduce GlaxoSmithKline's electricity bill by about £60,000 at its plant at Barnard Castle, County Durham.

It is the first time windpower has been used by industry in Teesdale, where plans to build two wind firms, one at Langdon Beck and the other at Barningham, have fallen through in the past

It is also the first time the company, which has 85 sites in 37 countries, has arranged its own power supply anywhere in the world, so top executives elsewhere will be monitoring the outcome.

Ashley Fenwick, the firm's site electrical engineer in Barnard Castle, switched on the turbines, which were bought second-hand from a Dutch wind farm that was changing to larger models.

Teesdale District Council received ten letters of protest, mainly about the impact on scenery, before it gave planning consent for the scheme.

But as the white blades turned yesterday residents said they looked graceful.

A company spokesman said the turbines were expected to generate ten per cent of the factory's needs at times and an average of four per cent over a year. The output would be enough for about 200 houses.