Farm Energy is about helping farms and rural businesses to cut energy costs and generate their own heat and power renewably.
And it’s about giving you the knowledge and confidence:
- To decide what technologies to use and what to avoid;
- To know where and how much to invest;
- To assess the opportunities, risks and returns for your business.
We provide:
- Energy efficiency audits;
- Renewable energy resource assessments – how much heat and power can be generated;
- Action plans for cutting energy use and developing renewable technologies;
- Advice on working with planners and obtaining planning permission;
- Advice on using grants, Feed-in Tariffs, and the Renewable Heat Incentive.
Because we don’t sell any renewable technologies we can provide independent advice on what is appropriate for your business.
Benefits:
- Reduced energy costs – at a time when energy prices are rising;
- A long-term income stream from renewables;
- A better return on investment – by using technologies appropriate to your farm/business;
- Lower carbon emissions, and stronger ‘green’ credentials;
- Confidence when dealing with r.e. suppliers.
Some common errors to avoid
- Neglecting energy efficiency – not nearly as exciting as renewables, but simple energy efficiency measures will usually give the fastest return on investment;
- Selecting the wrong renewable technology – e.g. heat pumps used to heat old inefficient buildings;
- Choosing the wrong location – e.g. wind turbines sited too close to buildings, trees or on a mast which is too low;
- Oversizing – very common with biomass boilers and solar thermal systems. It means you pay more than you need to and the technology works inefficiently;
- Betting on just one technology – very easy to do, but a better approach may be to spread the investment and risk across two or three technologies.
Recent work
Renewable energy plan Sweet Waters Farm, South Gloucestershire.
Sweet Waters is a 20 ha farm given to conservation grassland with some mature woodland. The owners are interested in developing the renewable potential of the farm and taking advantage of Feed-in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive.
Following a site visit, and assessment of the energy demand and resource we provided a plan for developing a package of renewables including wind, biomass, PV and solar thermal and and claiming Feed-in Tariffs and making best use of the low carbon heat and power available.