UK farmers expect a move towards renewables

October 01, 2012

Two sets of numbers in the last couple of weeks have had a big impact.

A Barclays Bank survey found that almost a third of UK farmers expect a move towards renewables to reduce costs or generate an income. According to the research, over one quarter (27 per cent) of farmers see rising costs as the single biggest threat to their business in the next five years, with one in ten (10 per cent) also worried about price volatility. The vast majority of farmers (82 per cent) who are looking to invest in renewable energy are motivated by concerns over rising energy costs.

Around the same time it was announced that wind turbines fed an all-time record high of 4.131 Gigawatts into the National Grid.

These figures are very encouraging: they tell us that wind energy is rapidly becoming a mature and integrated technology in the UK. But they also tell us that there is still huge potential growth, particularly for farm scale wind turbines, in the UK market.

At  Gaia-Wind, we are finding more and more of our turbine owners  are maximising  the benefits of generating their own energy. Graham Taylor designed his Eco House in Lanarkshire incorporating a Gaia-Wind 133 11 kW turbine as the principal power source. Other innovations include a very high standard of insulation, a ventilation heat recovery system and under floor heating.

The house and units consume about 14,000 units of electricity annually, around  half of the turbine’s average production, so a
substantial amount of his output is exported back to the grid.

In addition to tariff payments, the turbine provides energy security and a hedge against ever increasing energy bills. Many people do not want to want to take on the very substantial costs of say a medium wind turbine.  A small wind turbine bringing: a 21p FiT rate, the 50% rise in export prices, coupled with savings from increased energy costs brings the  potential to achieve ROIs which can compete with the pretty much any similar sized investment as well as contributing to a more self sufficient way of life.

You can read more on this survey here.