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Time to harvest renewable energy on the farm?
20Mar2009
Hard pressed rural business owners will be relieved that the seemingly inexorable rise in their energy costs has been at least temporarily interrupted. However, these bills still make up a much bigger share of most people’s outgoings than they did a few years ago.
If you live in a rural or remote spot then you may be particularly well placed to take advantage of various initiatives to encourage greater use of renewable energy alternatives to fossil fuel sources for heating and power, for various reasons.
Firstly, if relatively cheap mains gas is not available, the savings by switching from expensive oil, LPG or electricity to sustainable biomass, heat pump or solar heating are much more attractive.
Secondly, rural settings often allow more space for the often quite bulky equipment or fuel storage. They are also more likely to be blessed with exposure to the wind and sun that provide much of this unquenchable energy, and to be further away from neighbours who might object to the sight or sound of your personal power station.
Thirdly, wind and hydro generators will benefit from April this year when the Government doubles the variable subsidy for renewable electricity from generators of less than 50kW output, from around 3.5-4.5p per kilowatt hour generated, to 7-9p.
Fourthly, a rural business should be eligible for grant from the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) if it can be shown convincingly how the new system will benefit the business.
If you need more encouragement, 12th March saw a change in the planning rules relating to some renewable energy systems making it easier and cheaper to install biomass boilers and solar panels. Most will now have Permitted Development status, meaning that a planning application need not be submitted.
So what are the options for alternative heat and power and which is the right choice for your situation?
If heating is your biggest bill, the options are a biomass boiler or a heat pump. Wood chip is suitable if you need at least 60kW of heating and have plenty of space. In most domestic situations a wood pellet boiler will fit the bill as both it and the fuel take up far less space than with chips. A log boiler is fine if you have your own supply of timber and plenty of energy for handling it. A heat pump needs a very well insulated and draught-proof house as it is less efficient when worked hard. Unlike a biomass boiler it needs no refuelling and no maintenance.
Solar panels, whether generating electricity (Photovoltaic, or PV), or thermal panels heating domestic hot water, work well in Scotland. The pay back time can be long but the UK Government has recently pledged to provide a subsidy from Spring 2011 for renewable heat, including that from solar panels.
The economics may be far better for, for example, dairy farms which currently heat large volumes of water every day for cleaning, using electric immersion heaters on a standard tariff.
If electricity is your biggest energy cost, a hydro or wind turbine could be the answer. Hydro schemes can give the best return of all, but you need to be fortunate to have just the right situation of a strong steady flow of water down a significant drop. A wind turbine can be economic on a very exposed site.
The grant, loan and subsidy situation tends to vary from year to year and from region to region and it probably pays to get independent professional advice, both on these and the technical feasibility of the different systems based on your circumstances, and which equipment and installers to choose between, but the message is that the future for both small-scale power generation and renewable heat is looking increasingly bright, particularly for the rural population.
Joe Fergusson - Microgeneration Consultant - Bell Ingram
Email: joe.fergusson@bellingram.co.uk
Telephone 01292 886 544 or Mobile 07711 552 693