Solar investment boosts environmental focus
A drive to combine sustainable production with profitable farming has driven one Leicestershire farmer to invest in solar power to further boost his green credentials and diversify his farm activities. Caroline Stocks finds out more
Andrew Brown, who runs a 252ha mixed farming business at Fairchild’s Lodge in Rutland, recently installed a 50kW and a 4kW solar PV array on his barn, which is expected to generate more than 47,000kWh of power annually.
The 50kW array supplies electricity to the barn and the farm’s grain dryer, while the 4kW system supplies electricity to the farmhouse next door. Any surplus power is sold to the National Grid.
For chartered environmentalist Mr Brown, who was a Farmers Weekly Countryside Farmer of the Year finalist in both 2012 and 2008, investing in renewable energy was an obvious step for his business.
The farm is in the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, with least productive land planted into pollen and nectar mixes, wild bird seed and wildflower mixes, or reverted to permanent pasture – a measure which has seen numerous farmland birds, including peewits and grey partridge, as well as wading birds and hares to return to the farm.
System stats
- System: 50kW plus 4kW
- Output: 47,304kWh/year
- Cost: £60,000
- Payback: Six to seven years
Buffer strips have been planted around all arable fields, while Mr Brown has helped plant thousands of trees and hedgerow plants as part of a community woodland scheme in order to reduce the farm’s carbon footprint.
“I am very interested in sustainability and solar panels fit in with that,” he says. “At the moment I am harvesting wheat and rape, and I see no reason why I shouldn’t harvest the sun too.”
With a south-east facing barn, mounting an array on the roof was an ideal solution.
“On the farm I concentrate production on the best bits of land and conservation on the worst bits,” he says. “This fits in very well with that as it doesn’t alter anything we do – it’s on the roof and out of the way.”
Planners originally told Mr Brown he needed planning permission for the project, but after being told by Prescient Power, who he appointed to install the system, that planning wasn’t necessary for the size of the system he went back to the council.
“The second time around they agreed we didn’t need planning because the system was small enough and it was unobtrusive because it was on the roof,” he says.
“We had three-phase put in last year for the grain dryer, which was integral to the system, particularly as a lot of the energy I produce is going back to the grid.”
Getting energy back to the grid was more complicated than he anticipated, so having help to fill in the forms was vital, he adds.
“The company I used to install the system was very good at hand-holding to fill in the complicated forms, says Mr Brown.
He advises others thinking of cultivating renewables projects to ask fellow farmers for recommendations as to which installers to use.
Other than the forms, the whole process was relatively simple, is already benefiting the farm’s carbon footprint and will be financially beneficial to the business in just a few years, Mr Brown says.
“My commitment to sustainability is driven by the fact that first and foremost any project must be economically sustainable.
“The first time someone came to look at the farm they quoted £250,000 to install it. This [what he installed] cost me £60,000. Obviously the Feed-in Tariff has reduced since then, but it’s a huge difference.”
Despite the fall in the FiT, Mr Brown will still receive 13.03p/kWh for the 50kW array and 15.44p/kWh for the 4kW array. Coupled with an export income of 4.5p/kWh and a saving of £1,104 on his annual electricity bill, he expects to make just over £9,000 each year, with pay-back in investment taking six to seven years.
“I took out a loan to pay for it, but we should end up with £170,000 back after 20 years, which is significant,” he says.
“And who’s to say they might not work for longer than that, which would more than pay for the cost of having to dispose of the scrap at the end of their life.
“I could’ve gone down the route of hiring out the roof, but the danger is if you enter a contract to supply electricity and something happens such as the barn burns down, the company can still demand the electricity,” he adds.
“There’s a danger you end up paying the electricity company rather than the other way around.
“This way is relatively hassle free, as there is very little maintenance required. I have insured the panels in case they are struck by lightning, but otherwise I can just get on with farming without having to worry about them.”