No. 203 The On-farm Generation of Renewable Electricity

No. 203 The On-farm Generation of Renewable Electricity

ISBN 978 1 901 434 50 7

Price: £100.00

Foreword

The introduction of Feed-in Tariffs in April 2010 has sparked a surge of interest in renewable electricity projects from farmers and landowners as the government gets to grips with its very challenging targets – and so an urgent need for advice. This is potentially an important source of new revenue for rural businesses and an additional area of work for many CAAV members in which the traditional skills of critical appraisal and the judgement of individual cases will be very important.

With any new topic there is always a steep learning curve. It can be difficult to wade through the vast amount of information available in the renewables sector, and sift the quality information from the “hype”. Building on the Solar Farms paper from last December, this publication provides a working guide to the technology, economics and practical issues involved with wind, solar, hydro and anaerobic digestion. It cannot be comprehensive or definitive. The pace of change and the urgency of the need for a practical guide preclude that. It is intended to assist those involved to understand the situations met in this rapidly developing sector, pose the necessary questions and evaluate the replies.

Several CAAV members and others have assisted the development of this paper, particularly Josh Pollock of Pollock Associates and also John Mitchell of Anderson Strathern for comments on the law in Scotland. The Association thanks them for their generous input of time and knowledge. Particular thanks must go to Jeremy Moody for his hard work in driving this publication through to completion, supported by Kate Russell, Alice De Soer and Rebecca Green.