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Livingston, West Lothian – Wednesday 24th February 2016: Farmers across Scotland who may have witnessed a fall in income due to the recent spate of bad weather, can now add up to several thousands of pounds a year to their incomes. They need do nothing more than offer a field or small piece of land then watch their finances grow.
Scotland remains an attractive proposition for inward investment in the country’s small wind energy industry and there are farming communities across the country bringing in extra income from this enterprising initiative as many farmers look beyond their traditional arable, livestock and dairy revenue streams.
Farmers need to maximise land use and Scotland, with its abundance of rural farming communities, has the perfect topography for small-scale wind energy with its very healthy wind regime.
And with a ‘per-turbine’ windfall of anything between £1,500 and £2,000 per annum index linked for 20 years up for grabs, it makes good economic sense for farmers to lease a small piece of their land for small wind turbine investors, more so as the vagaries of the Scottish climate with occasional poor harvests, unusually harsh weather and dramatically rising energy costs can take their toll on a cash-strapped farming and rural economy.
So, for any farmer, this is a win/win situation. In addition to the rental for doing nothing more than pledging use of a field – and with no loss of use of the land at all- the farmer can make use of the green energy produced on-site by any wind turbine.
This significantly drops their overall energy costs and safeguards them against future energy price. Moreover, the farmer can, if he wishes, be ‘locked in’ to a 20-year low cost green electricity deal.
Steve McMahon, VP Sales & Marketing, Orenda Energy Solutions, the Livingston-based turbine manufacturer for the small/medium distributed wind industry commented;
“Despite this widespread belief that almost every farmer in the land has turned to renewable wind energy, the reality is that only a very small percentage of Scottish farms utilise wind energy and the cash revenue it generates.”
Many believe the renewable market is largely dead given the drastic Feed in Tariff (FiT) reductions. That might be the case for larger turbines, but the small wind energy market remains buoyant.
Steve McMahon added;
“The only tariff that makes economic sense for farmers is in the sub-50kW band – which is still attracting mainstream investment funds even with the drastic FiT reductions. We are already working with two major international investment funds and canny farmers in Scotland who want to make good money by simply letting a field for these small wind turbines, will reap large financial benefits.
Therefore, what might appear to be land that is not ideal for a wide variety of farming uses could be perfect for wind power. More farmers should be taking advantage of this at small/medium wind turbine level. We’re not talking large utility grade wind turbines like you see in wind farms; these are small structures with towers no more than 30m high.”
More details are available at www.orendaenergy.com
Ends
About Orenda Energy Solutions:
Orenda Energy Solutions designs and manufactures fully integrated wind turbine systems for the rural segment of the small distributed wind industry. Orenda’s 51kW Skye™ wind turbine is the solution of choice for farmers, large acreage landowners, and wind park developers and investors.
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