December 04 2009
ALTERNATIVE and renewable energy systems, such as wind turbines, energy crops and anaerobic digesters, have got many farmers thinking – could I produce my own on-farm power?
Most livestock farmers are switched on to the idea of being cost efficient and making the most out of the resources available to them, but how realistic is it to make these new technologies work for you on your farm?
Myerscough College held a Northwest Livestock Programme demonstration event on a 400 acre dairy farm near Lytham St Annes to address these questions, offering different options, advice and support for livestock farmers seriously considering a route into the energy market.
"The driving force was 70p a litre for diesel and £37,000 to connect the farm to the grid. It’s had its moments, its trials and tribulations, but everything from the rape crop is used on the farm." - Tim Laycock
Host for the day Tim Laycock, who farms on the outskirts of Ballam on the Fylde coast, was forced to think outside the box when conventional energy costs worked against him.
Having sold his farm in the village to move to a new-build site, a combination of the price of diesel and the huge cost to connect the farm to the national grid led him to search for alternatives.
Mr Laycock’s solution was to grow his own oilseed rape and then cold press the seeds and filter the oil produced to fuel his generator, thus powering the whole farm - including a modern 24-hour robotic milking parlour.
He said: “The driving force was 70p a litre for diesel and £37,000 to connect the farm to the grid. It’s had its moments, its trials and tribulations, but everything from the rape crop is used on the farm.
“We use the meal that comes out of the press to feed to the dairy cows and we use the straw to bed down. We started off feeding two kilos a day but it was stripping the flesh off, we reduced it to one and a half and now we’re back up to two.”
The 11-month crop costs Mr Laycock £150 to £160 per acre to produce and he grows 50 acres a year on a five-year rotation - drilling in August and harvesting in July, to produce 75 tonnes of seed.
The process of producing the oil starts with the seeds being fed from a 40 tonne external hopper into a cold press located on the upper floor of a converted building.
The press, sourced on the internet from China, squeezes the oil out the side into an old cast iron bath where it is gravity fed into an old bulk tank below and left to settle. Meanwhile, the meal, which is crisp to the touch, comes out the other side and drops into a store below.
Using a pump and filter (again sourced on the internet from Italy) the oil is then pumped from the tank into bowsers and again left to settle for a fortnight.
Finally, the oil is pumped from these bowsers into others, again using the filter, ready to be used in the farm’s 75kva generator. The process produces 1,000 litres of oil and a tonne of meal a day - averaging 350 litres of oil from a tonne of seed.
A slight modification on the generator heats the oil to 90 degrees, which makes the oil slightly thinner than diesel when it reaches the pump.
This whole system, including the building work, cost £25,000 to put in place and Mr Laycock puts the price of the oil at just over 20p a litre to produce, after deducting the cost of the meal. He uses 3,000 litres a month (36,000 litres a year) and the 75 tonne of seed he grows provides two thirds of his yearly energy. He buys in additional seed from his neighbours for the final third.
Mr Laycock added: “The Chinese press cost £5,000 and the Italian filter was £3,500. A similar press cost £8,000 over here - the internet is a wonderful thing!”
This system of course isn’t for everyone, nor is a wind turbine or an anaerobic digester, but it just shows what you can do with a bit of ingenuity.
WIND TURBINES
A presentation on wind turbines was given by Jonathan Kemp of Bilsborrow-based Sustainable Energy Systems, covering the various power outputs and sizes of turbine available.
He stated that there were three kinds of wind turbine on the market, up-wind, down-wind and vertical axis, and that they can be stand alone or grid connected.
There are various sizes of small scale wind turbines, starting at 2.4 kw and increasing to 5kw, 11kw and 20kw, and, depending on the size, they can power either single or three-phase supplies.
A feasibility assessment at a particular location monitors the wind speed (metres per second) for three months up to a year to see how much energy would be produced in that period. This assesses if a wind turbine would be viable and if so what type and size would be practical.
Average prices:
Small Scale Turbine:
Evance Iskra R9000
5kW
£25-30,000
Gaia 133
11kW
£45-50,000
Large Scale Turbine:
WES18
80kW
£220-250,000
WES30
250kW
£500,000
Example: Barn conversion in Haslingden
A large barn conversion in Haslingden, Lancashire, installed a 5kW Iskra a year ago. The building used on average 8 – 9,000kWh per annum and the turbine generates 12,000kW per annum – therefore putting a surplus of 3 to 4,000kW back into the grid.
The wind speed at this site is 6 meters per second. The expected payback period of this turbine is six years.
The payback period can range between six to 10 years depending on the size of turbine, your site and the wind speed in the area.
The larger turbines (above 5kW) are unable to work in very strong winds and shut down to avoid damage, whereas the 5kW will keep going.
1kWH will power a 1kW kettle for an hour
So if you use 10,000kWh a year then you are looking to produce 10,000 kW
There are 8,560 hours in a year but a turbine will only work for a maximum of 30% of that time when there is wind i.e. 2,500 full load hours.
So a 5kW wind turbine could produce around 12,500kWh (2,500x5) in good wind speed areas.
Selling power
There are three benefits:
-
Producing your own energy on site
-
Sell surplus power back to the grid
-
Feed-in Tariffs / ROCS (Renewable Obligation Certificates)
ROCS are digital certificates which hold the details of exactly how a unit of electricity was made, by whom and finally who bought and used it. These ROCs are traded separately to the electricity itself and work as a bonus premium on top of the price paid for the unit.
Energy Companies are required to generate a minimum of 10% of their electricity output from sustainable sources. If they have not managed to produce the required amount of green energy themselves they must buy ROCs on the open market to make up the shortfall.
ROCs are good news for renewable energy as they ensure a certain minimum percentage of Green Energy is produced nationally and provide the financial incentive to encourage generators to invest in Renewable Energy Schemes of their own.
In April 2010 ROCs are to be superseded by Feed-in Tariffs that have a government backed guarantee for the next 20 years.
Proposed initial Feed-in tariffs for different size turbines are as follows:
| <1.5kW = 30.5 pence per kWh |
| 1.5kW to 15kW = 23 pence per kWh |
| 15kW to 50kW = 20.5 pence per kWh |
So a 5kW turbine that produces 12,000kWh could potentially return a feed-in-tariff of £2,760 (23p x 12,000)
Planning – An application must be submitted to your local authority
Maintenance – There is minimal maintenance. An annual inspection is recommended. A turbine has a typical service life of 20 years.
Further information:
- Specifications of available small scale wind turbines
Contact: Sustainable Energy Systems
Tel: 01772 361010
Email: info@sustainableenergysystems.co.uk
Website: www.sustainableenergysystems.co.uk
- Independent information from the British Wind Energy Association is available at www.bwea.com
- An example of farmers elsewhere in the country who have invested in turbines
SOLAR POWER (Photovoltaic Arrays)
These have more installation opportunities, a simpler planning process and don’t require any maintenance. However, they don’t produce the same volume of energy as wind turbines, and produce four times as much energy in summer than they do in winter.
Example: Large factory roof in Liverpool
Installation of a 30 panel 5.4kW array on a south facing roof at a 30 degree angle. This installation cost just over £20,000 to install and produces 4,000kWH per year.
Sustainable Energy Systems also specialise in micro hydro-power schemes
Further information:
Contact: Sustainable Energy Systems
Tel: 01772 361010
Email: info@sustainableenergysystems.co.uk
Website: www.sustainableenergysystems.co.uk
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
A presentation was given by Thom Gornall of Greenplan Agriculture Ltd on behalf of Weltec BioPower.
Information on what can be digested
Agricultural (slurry and crops), Industrial – food waste, Industrial – abattoir waste, were covered. Thom explained that an efficient anaerobic digester will not work on slurry alone, and needs solids such as silage, crops, food or abattoir waste to produce a sustainable amount of biogas.
Anaerobic digestion uses bacteria to convert organic matter into methane and carbon dioxide, in the absence of oxygen. The methane produced can be used to provide heat and generate electricity.
Plants in Germany, where there are around 3,000 in operation, use a mixture of farm waste and high energy feed stocks and crops specially grown for the digester. Other sources of organic matter, such as maize and whole crop silage, will give off more methane if they can be produced at a sufficiently low cost.
Gate fees can also be charged for the disposal of organic waste (food and abattoir) but with this comes increased regulation and treatment costs.
Missed the presentation?
Further information
ENERGY EFFICIENCY ADVICE
Groundwork - Claire Brown from the Lancashire Business Environment Association, a division of Groundwork Pennine Lancashire, discussed the Free Energy Efficiency Support available to Lancashire businesses.
She said support was available to any Lancashire business and included:
- a FREE site visit
- Identification of resource efficiency opportunities
- Site tour
- Recommended actions report or follow-up letter
Since 1996 55 companies have achieved cost savings of £4.2 million, reducing emissions, water usage, waste and effluent.
The case study below displays how the scheme helped a farm (which has a caravan site) in Rivington, near Bolton.
Further information:
Promar - Richard Bell from Promar discussed the benefits of the Livestock Programme's Resource Efficiency Audits which are geared specifically to agricultural businesses in the North West. Grants are available through the programme to fund such recommendations as: heat exchangers, farm scale renewable energy facilities and roof water recycling equipment - Find out more
GRANTS AND SUPPORT AVAILABLE
Lancashire RDPE Local Action Groups - grants available for alternative energy (BOTH farm use only for projects costing over £20,000 and farm use / sell back to grid).
Lancashire Small Scale Renewable Grant - farmers looking to put up wind turbines can apply for a maximum of approximatley £6,300 (7,500 euros) in grant from LCDL. The exception is if they process and market their produce themselves e.g. have a farm shop, then they can apply for more.
Please also be aware: Any microgeneration projects that use central government funding to install will have to pay it back if drawing down feed-in tariffs. This does not apply to funding from local authorities or county councils as this is not central government funded. (Tel: 01772 536600)
Further info is available at:
http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/lcdl/money/ssrs/index.asp
RDPE Performance Grants - available through the Livestock Programme - Find out more
Farmers who have had a resource audit completed and wish to install a wind turbine for farm use only costing under £20,000 (i.e. not to put power back in to the grid) could use this stream of funding if recommended by Promar.
(Report and pictures by Adrian Capstick)
Related Event
Alternative Energy - Could You Produce Your Own Power? - Lancashire