Family farm aims for energy self-sufficiency

A Shropshire business is making sustainability a top priority on its mixed farming unit and adding wind energy to a growing list of renewable energy sources. Farmers Weekly finds out more

Increasing energy prices have inspired one farming family to adopt a variety of renewable energy sources to help meet their ambition of becoming energy self-sufficient.

Gethin and Co is a mixed farming enterprise at Lower House Farm, near Cardeston, Shrewsbury. Made up of arable crops, a poultry rearing unit and green waste composting facility, the 90ha farm business is run by Mark and Clair Gethin and their children Sophie Evans and Matthew Gethin.

The family erected a 50kW wind turbine in April to complement existing renewables technologies - a 200kW roof-mounted solar PV array and a 750kW biomass boiler - and to ensure energy was being produced around the clock.

"The Gethins realised that other complementary renewable energy systems were needed, particularly to provide energy at night time. The size of the wind turbine was chosen deliberately to generate the shortfall in renewable energy for the farm business," says Peter Fenwick, planning consultant at Berrys in Shrewsbury, who advised the family on the project.

Overall power demand at the poultry unit is around 300,000kWh a year. The solar panels provide just under half of this, and the family hopes the wind turbine will produce between 140,000 and 150,000kWh a year, generating electricity in the winter and at night when the poultry units are net users of non-solar PV electricity.

The family also plans to install an in-vessel composting facility to take green and food waste and an anaerobic digester alongside it. The new 25,000t waste facility will convert green and food waste into compost and expand the family's existing green processing business, which has been running for more than a decade.

Matthew Gethin says both the wind turbine and solar array at maximum output are capable of generating 250,000kWh of power.

"We are putting in an anaerobic digester to burn methane to provide electricity to make up the shortfall in our demand," he adds. "We reduced our electricity import by a third after the solar installation and now it's down to half with the turbine coming on stream. We are hoping the AD will take this virtually to zero."

Planning hurdles

Although planning permission was granted in 2011 for a 400kW solar panel array mounted on the roofs of the existing poultry units, only half the solar panels were erected because the Feed-in Tariff rate changed and it became uneconomic to erect the remainder.

However, when gaining planning permission for the wind turbine, the family met local opposition. The application was originally turned down by Shropshire Council, which said the scheme would have a detrimental effect on the landscape and be intrusive to neighbours.

"We argued that the chosen site has a good wind resource location and since the nearest non-involved residential property was more than 500 metres away there would be no noise or shadow flicker effect," says Mr Fenwick.

To avoid planning disputes, Mr Fenwick advises farmers to engage with the local community from the outset, try and ensure the turbine is sited at least 300m from the nearest house and select the most appropriate site and apparatus for the farm.

Normal planning concerns include concerns with noise, bats and birds, visual impact, line of sight, communications, health and safety, airfields and distance from buildings, he adds.

More news and features on farm energy

Source: http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2013/08/25/140707/family-farm-aims-for-energy-self-sufficiency.html

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