Alness Transition Town group has appointed Henrik Micski from Ecodyn Consulting as their turbine development officer. Henrik will be looking in detail at the sites previously identified in a feasibility study for the erection of community owned wind turbines.

Henrik will also be tasked with working up a business case for the project, securing a lease from the landowner and carrying out community consultation.

Henrik will be based at West End Communitty Centre.

THE NEWBURGH-based environmental consultancy Ecodyn Ltd has been involved is erecting a wind turbine on the island of Coil, writes Ewan Pate.

The 20kw C & F turbine is now at work at Crossapol Farm in a wind battered corner of Coll only accessible by beach.

The Fife company utilised the knowledge of local farmer Colin Kennedy, recently elected to the Crofting Commission, to help them plan the transport of the turbine, in sections, around tidal patterns.

Had they miscalculated, engineers would have been left at the mercy of the Atlantic and pummelled by searing winds.

“The site is two miles off the public road and the access is over a tidal beach so it was a challenge,” said Mr Kennedy, who has farmed on Coll all his life.

“Everything had to be planned for when the tide was out.”

The installation of the turbine posed a logistical challenge with aggregates having to be unloaded, 28 tonnes at a time, from the ferry at Arinagour Pier.

“We had to unload everything at the ferry terminaland transfer up to the site bit by bit in small tractors and trailers.

“It was daunting but this is a first for the island and a great example of whatcan be achieved,” added Mr Kennedy.

The turbine’s owner, Douglas Fairbairn, is delighted with the new feature on the 1,000 acresof peninsula where he keeps suckler cows and sheep. He explored several renewable energy options but the remoteness of thecoastal site prohibited most solutions.

“We looked at oil but, as we live two miles across a beach, we can’t get a tanker up here. If you are crossing with any form of heavy equipment the tide has to be right out to make sure you have a safe crossing.

“I’ve been stuck a cou-ple of times and had to dig myself out.”

Due to the 100mph winds at the exposed site, the new turbine will feed into the National Grid and is expected to make a profit in under five years.

Ecodyn believe more island farmers should take advantage of one of their biggest assets — wind— now, before pricing tariffs change.

“This installation definitely had a logistics rating of 10 but, with Colin’s knowledge, we are delighted everything went smoothly,” said Duncan Oswald, Ecodyn founding director.

“On islands you have tonnes of wind and open land and it is a great investment.

“Obviously, the grid feed- in tariffs will drop in October 2012 and are predicted to fall 5% every year.

“However, customers are locked into a tariff for 20 years so the quicker people start the process, the better return they will get on their investment.”

• Un-secured Asset Finance – just as farms normally finance their plant and machinery.
• Dual Warranty backed by C&F Green Energy and C&F Tooling – no other form of financing or purchase offers the client this dual warranty.
• Client needs only 10% deposit prior to installation – Peregrine pay the 90% balance to C&F once the turbine is installed.
• Next day finance approval – Peregrine only need the client’s completed application form and latest set of farm accounts to approve.
• Fees of only £250 – which are taken with the first repayment.
• Fixed rate lending up to 84 months – (60 or 72 months as standard).
• Support from the bank in the event of product complaint – with a Hire Purchase finance agreement, the bank will support customer case as is their duty.

The lending rate on this fantastic un-secured package is 8.2% fixed true rate (4.5% flat per annum).

Download PDF application

For more information and a recent news article click on http://hebridestoday.com/2012/01/scalpay-community-land-steering-group-select-firm-for-feasibility-study

Ecodyn awarded QMS contract to assist Scottish pig farmers for another three years

Ecodyn is delighted to announce that Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) has awarded us the contract to assist Scottish pig producers with Pollution Prevention Control (PPC) permits for another three years. Ecodyn has been working with QMS to assist with PPC applications since 2003 when we were asked to assist the red meat sector and then, in 2006, with farmers with more than 2000 pig places. We have been working with pig producers ever since to ensure they maintain compliance with the permits and submit the relevant reports to SEPA on time. Ecodyn is also assisting with related technical issues as and when they arise, for example, review of best practice techniques and consultation on BREF revision.

The long-awaited consultation document on the UK government’s proposed changes to the feed-in tariff regime has been issued. You can download the full text here (http://bit.ly/w1rayy) but we have summarised the main points for wind energy below:

What’s in it

• Implementation date for new rates 1/10/2012.
• Automatic annual price reduction (of at least 5% from April 2014)
• Tariffs for 1.5kW to 1.5MW wind installations set to provide 8% return @ 6m/s
• Automatic reduction in rates triggered when each technology achieves a certain total installed capacity.
• Proposed capacity triggers for wind are 111MW for 2014 and 137MW for 2015. (Total wind capacity installed pre-FITs was 5MW, FITs Yr1 14.2MW, FITs Yr2 to Q3 15.7MW.)
• Preliminary accreditation process for wind projects over 50kW to provide comfort to investors (although for the purposes of automatic capacity-based degression, these installations count as deployed on accreditation).
• Preferential rates and treatment for community projects.

What’s not

• No mention of any change to capacity bands
• No change to the ability to restrict turbine output (e.g. install a 900kW Enercon E-44, restricted to 500kW).

For further details, or to discuss how any of this might affect your project, please give us a call.

Energy trends section 6-renewables.pdf