Let's start with the most important point -
Without a grid connection you can't receive payment for the electricity your turbines generate.
But exactly what is a grid connection?
Grid connection is the term used to refer to physically connecting your wind turbines to the national grid, so that the 'clean' electricity your turbine generates can be exported for 'public consumption'.
How Much Will a Grid Connection Cost?
Depending on where you are in the country, you may or may not be successful in procuring a grid connection, depending on available capacity.
If there are already a lot of wind turbines or solar parks near you, the 'available capacity' on your local grid may be very low—meaning the cost of getting connected to the grid could be prohibitively expensive.
Why?
Because in this scenario the only way you would be able to develop a wind farm on your land would be to pay to upgrade the local infrastructure.
For example, having to pay to upgrade the local area substation to give it more capacity would cost a lot.
In some cases this can cost millions of pounds.
Obviously that's a lot of money — but then if you have enough land for say 4 or 5 large 2 Megawatt wind turbines, and you are in a high-wind speed part of the country, then the cost could well be justified.
So, one of the first things we do when you enquire about us putting turbines on your land and paying you a rental income is we apply for what's called a 'budget estimate'.
A budget estimate gives us a rough idea of how much it would cost to connect to the grid in your area - it's the fastest way to find out if a wind farm will be feasible or not on your land.
Before we apply for a grid estimate though, we first work out how many turbines—and what size—your land would accomodate.
We then contact your local Distribution Network Operator (DNO) to request a 'Budget Estimate'.
I've just introduced a new term, DNO. Read this article to find out what a DNO is. If you decide to progress with developing a wind farm on your site then you will hear that phrase a lot through the development!
This link will show you a map of the UK so you can determine which DNO manages the national grid in your location.
As mentioned though, before you can apply for a budget estimate you will need to work out how many wind turbines you can fit on your land, and also what size of turbines you are looking to install.
There is of course quite a lot to this last task - but we can do this for you by performing what's called a 'Desktop Assessment'.
We do this totally free of charge.
If after performing the Desktop Assessment we determine your site ticks all of the boxes in terms of wind speed and grid capacity, then we then chat with you about the opportunity for putting a wind farm on your land.
Please get in touch if you would like us to perform a free Desktop Assessment, (including applying for a Budget Estimate on your behalf.)