Tuesday 30 August 2011

Barclays launches £100m renewables fund for farmers

Brookland Farm, Herefordhsire
(Photo Ben Whittle)
Along with the partnership between Siemens and the Carbon Trust it seems that private finance for renewables is really beginning to take off.

Barclays has launched a £100m renewables fund aimed at the farming sector.  It focuses on electricity production from solar, wind and hydro technologies, leaving the Government's publicly Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to incentivise the production of renewable heat from September 30th this year.

The scheme is expected to fund around 100 projects ranging in value between £250,000 and £700,000.  The fund managers anticipate that most projects will be solar (photovoltaic) or wind.

Clearly the launch of this fund is more good news for renewable energy in the UK. However, traditional constraints such as planning and landscape impact remain and not everyone will be able to adopt these technologies.

Many of the land and property owners we have spoken to have already considered solar which is unsurprising considering the nature of the technology and the relatively large roof areas associated with agricultural buildings.

But other options do exist.

Given the good access to woodland within the agricultural sector biomass heating is also generating a lot of interest and we are seeing increasing interest in feasibility studies and the RHI, both for commercial and domestic applications.

More details on the Barclays fund can be found on the Guardian and Barclays websites.

If you are considering biomass heating and would like to undertake a feasibility study please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Matthew Morris
Woodfuel Development Manager
Kent Downs AONB
01303 815 171

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