By Allan Hainey, Renewable Energy Underwriter, NFU Mutual

Using the power of the sun to grow crops is the basis of agriculture, so it’s not surprising that farmers are proving keen to invest in renewable energy schemes like photovoltaic solar panel arrays and wind turbines.

Renewable energy bears other similarities to farming: a high initial investment is required to set up the business and it is likely to take several years for the returns to cover the initial expenditure. Success is also highly dependent on matching the characteristics of the location’s climate to the appropriate renewables installation.

State set guaranteed Feed-in Tariff (FiTs) payments – generous fixed payments for generation of electricity by renewable means – were the initial driver for a take-off in interest in this area.

From the introduction of FiTs in April 2010 there were 2,765 eligible installations in the first quarter, with 8,577 in the next quarter. The bulk of this growth was in the area of solar with this making up 97.6% of first quarter installations in 2010 and 91.2% of those in the second quarter.

As the growth in solar power in the UK coincided with technology improvements and reductions in the cost of panels demand increased beyond the expectations of t...Read More