Too late for turbines?

Now that the Feed-in-Tariff has been abolished, you may be thinking wind turbines are no longer viable… but not necessarily so.

Your land may still be suitable for wind turbines, depending on a number of key factors.

These include…

  1. Your site’s average annual wind speed
  2. Planning constraints
  3. Cost to install
  4. Turbine performance

If you are also wondering whether it’s too late to start planning for a wind turbine, then in this article I want to help you decide by exploring each of the above issues, so you can make your mind up.

1. Wind speed.

At the risk of stating the obvious – if your farm is in an area of low wind speed then erecting a medium size 225kw or larger wind turbine like the ones we provide is going to be a fairly pointless exercise.

A few years ago a site with at least 6.5 metres per second average annual wind speed could expect to make a great return on investment.

However, now that the Feed in Tariff has been cut, a site will only be viable if it has either has a much higher wind speed, or is a high user of electricity, like an industrial estate for example.

So, if you don’t yet know what you average estimated wind speed is, find out now before you do anything else.

We can provide you with a rough estimate of your wind speed on request. Just get in touch and we can do it within a hour or two.

If you’re looking to buy a wind turbine and own it outright, a wind speed of 6.5 metres per second is still viable if you buy a refurbished wind turbine, because the initial outlay is so much lower than buying a new one.

2. Local Planning Policy/Constraints.

Your local planning authorities may have various local planning constraints that cost a lot of money to overcome.

We’ve even heard of authorities requesting full-size paper-mache turbine mockups, to prove transport and delivery to site is possible! (Crazy, it can all be done very easily on computer.)

Of course many ‘Renewable Energy Experts’ will say they can help you gain planning permission for one or more turbines. The only problem is that many of them charge more than £30,000 and that is totally speculative.

If they fail to get you planning then you will be out of pocket by that much… with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Before you head into planning try and find out from other local farmers how they got their wind turbines passed, and the objections they faced. You’re likely to face the same ones.

Factors like MOD radar stations and nearby airfields could mean you don’t stand a chance of getting planning—in which case you are of course best keeping your wallet shut when an expert offers to do your planning!

(NOTE: We don’t charge our land lease clients for planning… we pay for everything.

3. Turbine cost.

As mentioned above, if you have a wind speed lower than 6.5 metres per second it could be a lot harder to justify paying for a brand new turbine, because it could take many years before you break-even and start to achieve a return on your investment.

This is one of the main reasons why my business partner Mark and I decided to form Boythorpe Wind Energy — to provide refurbished turbines that achieve payback much faster than buying new – even more important now the feed in tariff has been stopped.

4. Turbine Performance.

If you buy a cheap or poorly made turbine, and it’s constantly breaking down, then of course that will keep eating into your profits.

This is why we only provide Vestas wind turbines.

They’re incredibly well made, and are the proven work-horses of the wind energy industry. Despite being ‘second hand’ – they come with a two years full warranty and can be fully insured against breakdown and loss of earnings.

If you would like to discuss a land lease and get cheap electricity for your farm or industrial estate, or simply want to buy a used (refurbished) wind turbine from us get in touch todaybefore it really is too late!