According to the report published this month, by September around one in five farmers in England and Wales will be producing clean electricity, one in six will have installed solar PV and a further one in eight will be using or generating renewable energy.
The findings suggest agriculture will make a significant contribution to the UK target of producing 15% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020, as set by the EU Renewable Energy Directive.
More than 400 farmers were surveyed in a first-of-its-kind partnership between the two organisations. The analysis revealed that over half of those surveyed felt that gaining planning permission was the biggest barrier to renewable energy projects, with one in three seeing access to finance as a possible issue and one in four finding access to the right information problematic.
Meanwhile, 39% of farmers surveyed are planning some capital expenditure in 2012 – mainly machinery and farm infrastructure. Funding will come from the bank in 42% of cases, from the business itself for 37% and from farmers’ own or family money in 26% of cases. Of those with no solar or wind projects, 34% believed access to finance was a barrier.
Ian Burrow, head of agriculture and renewable energy at NatWest said: “This report shows farmers are taking notice of the developments in renewable energy and see a tangible benefit. We’ve already taken steps to help those businesses that see access to finance as a barrier”.
“The NFU has been encouraging farmers and growers nationwide across all sectors to diversify into renewable energy for the past few years – but we are amazed at this level of uptake already,” added the NFU’s chief renewable energy adviser, Jonathan Scurlock. “The potential of land-based renewable energy to support profitable farming, while contributing to energy security and the low-carbon economy, is evidently much greater than we ever imagined.”
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