Making money from space
Gage Williams
West Country Renewables Ltd
01208 841378 or [email protected]
What you can do with one acre
y I’ll show you what can be done with one acre
y My acre is windy as it is above 200m
y It is close to a business park and/or a large
dairy farm that uses about 400 MWh electricity
and about 15,000 litres of heating oil
y There is good access to 3 phase 11kV grid
What do farmers do?
y Through photosynthesis, they have harvested
crops that have got their energy from the sun
y Why do we eat food? Because it gives us energy
y Farmers like to diversify
y Can do this with one acre used to convert wind,
solar and geo-thermal into electricity and heat for
their own and others’ use
y Here’s how
Using the wind
y Conventional: install a farm scale Endurance 55kW
turbine costing £280k and earning c. £60,000 in Yr 1
y Unconventional and available in 3 years: install a 130m
wind-fence costing £30,000 and earning £15,000 in Yr 1
Using the sun
y One acre has space for 250kW solar PV, need eight rows of
solar panels, each row is 70m long, rows are 10m apart
y Cost £300k generates 250,000 kWh/yr at 11p FIT + 5p sale =
£40k in Yr 1
y Wills Bros’ dairy farm has 4.5 acres of roof
y Unconventional in 3 years: could combine wind & solar:
y Fox-proof perimeter fence great for sheep or game pen
Digging for victory
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One acre can take 70kW Ground Source Heat Pump
Needs 700m of 1.2m deep trench to lay ‘slinkies’
Ten trenches 70m long 7m apart
Generates 150,000 kWh of heat – pump uses
40,000 kWh of solar or wind electricity
4.3p/kWh of Renewable Heat Incentive
earns £6,450
Saves 16,000 litres of heating oil/gas = £11,350
Uses 40,000 kWh electricity at 12p = - £4,800
(free if RE)
Net saving £13,000 for GSHP cost of £52,000
What has our acre earned?
System
Cost
Output
Electricity
Output
Heat
Year 1
Net Inc
ROI
E-3120 55kW
Turbine
£280,000
200 MWh
-
£50,000
17.8%
250kW
Solar PV
£300,000
250 MWh
-
£40,000
13.3%
70kW
GSHP
£52,000
-
150 MWh
£13,000
25.0%
Totals
£632,000
450 MWh
150 MWh
£103,000
16.3%
About 600 MWh per acre, costs £632k, earns £103k/year
– remember these figures
Golden Acre Conclusions
y Cornwall has 880,000 acres
y Many could be used to earn over £100k/yr
y Many could be community owned as a 16%
return, RPI linked for 20 years, is unbeatable
y Supply companies such as Good Energy could
offer discounts for pubs, shops, churches, village
halls in return for taking the renewable electricity
y Renewables prices are constant unlike fossil fuels
y Cornwall could be a net exporter of energy
How many acres would we need?
y Cornwall uses 12,000 GWh/yr (1m tonnes of oil)
y This would require 20,000 Golden Acres or
2.3% of Cornwall’s 880,000 acres
y At 70p/litre, we are spending £840m/yr on
energy or £3,600 per Cornish household
y 20,000 Golden Acres would earn £2billion/yr
y At £632k/acre, this would cost £12.6 billion
y Two Hinkley nuclear plants will cost £14 billion,
generate 16,000 GWh/yr, have high costs & not
deliver until after 2022
The Cornish Alps
y Cornwall has one of the largest brownfield sites
in the UK – the Clay Area covers 12,000 acres
y Not all the Golden Acres will be in the Clay
Area
y Existing wind & solar farms plus more single
farm turbines & use of large roofs & car parks
y 6,000 acres of Cornish Alps used for solar PV,
wind-fence/turbines & geothermal, would leave
less than 70 acres per parish (0.5% of land)
Clay Pits & Pumped Storage
y Cornish Alps has clay pits at different elevations
y Clay pits are impermeable – no spillage to rivers
y Surplus wind & solar could be used to pump
water from lower to higher pits for storage
y Water run by pipe to lower pits using turbines to
earn peak spot tariffs and ROCs or FITs
y Should balance the grid reducing the 20%
over-supply that is wasted
y Cornish Alps should become the SW’s battery
Conclusions
y 20,000 acres (2.3% of Cornwall) could make
Cornwall a net exporter of energy
y Turning a cost of £3,600 per home into a profit
y Farmers should look to their Golden Acres
y The Cornish Alps should become a massive
battery using pumped storage to balance the grid
y Get’s over intermittency of solar and wind
y Cheaper than two new nuclear power stations at
Hinkley – especially full life cycle cost &
massive waste of heat