Sunny FiT Advice For Farmers

Orta Solar has been contacted by many
farmers keen to install 50kW of Solar PV on 1/4acre of land or a barn roof
before the next Feed in Tariff (FiT) reductions on 1st July. 50kW of Solar PV
on a Farm still makes strong financial sense for those that act fast costing
circa £90k & paying back circa £380k over 25yrs. But since 1st April there
is a requirement that a "˜building' to which a Solar PV system is attached must
be independently assessed to meet Energy Performance Certificate grade D (EPCD)
or above in order to claim FiTs. How does this work for farms with a mixture of
grain barns, cowsheds and often workshops / offices?

After studying the wording of the
"˜Government Response to Consultation on Comprehensive Review Phase 1 "“ Tariffs
for solar PV' (without falling asleep!) and then applying it to the real life
farms we work on every day, Orta now propose 2 routes forward to our farmer
clients.

ï‚· Start the PV installation process
with a commercial EPC assessment on your farm "˜buildings' and then consider the
cost of upgrading them to meet an EPC grade D as part of the PV installation.
Advantage- the PV system would deliver savings on the electricity consumed in
these "˜buildings', but almost certainly with an additional capital requirement
upfront,

ï‚· Electrically disconnect the
"˜buildings' from the "˜non-buildings' and connect the Solar PV system to the
latter. Advantage- lowest cost to install the Solar PV, but would not save
electricity used in the "˜buildings'

So what are "˜buildings' and
"˜non-buildings'? Paragraph 43 of the consultation states, "...it should be
possible to obtain an EPC for any building that meets the definition of
building set out in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (it is
important to note that this includes buildings which are not currently required
under that Directive to have an EPC when sold, let or built)8", the note 8
referring to, "8 Directive 2002/91/EC on the energy performance of buildings".
This defines

Trusted Developers & Operators of
Solar PV  "˜building' as, "a roofed
construction having walls, for which energy is used to condition the indoor
climate; a building may refer to the building as a whole or parts thereof that
have been designed or altered to be used separately".

So that is clear, a barn with open
sides is not classed as a "˜building'. Nor is a grain barn, or un-heated milking
shed, often substantial consumers of electricity, as they do not use energy to
condition the climate. So far so good and it is now clear that an EPCD is not
required on a structure that does not fall into the definition of a "˜building'.
However, what happens with a chicken shed where energy is used to condition the
climate, but it is used as part of the internal process rather than
conditioning the indoor climate for human occupancy- EPCD or not? No answer yet
from DECC on this type of grey area but Jonathan Scurlock of the NFU is
lobbying hard for clarification in such instances.

Where this also gets muddled is the
latter part of paragraph 43 which states, "Additionally, in many cases we
expect that solar PV installations which are attached to a building for which
it is not possible to obtain an EPC, will nonetheless be wired to provide
electricity to a building that is able to obtain an EPC. For example, this
might include a solar PV installation attached to a barn that is also wired to
provide electricity to a farmhouse. In this example, the requirement would
still apply and could be met if an EPC were provided demonstrating that the
farmhouse was rated at EPC level D or above.".

The reality is that almost every
commercial farm that we visit to install solar PV on their land or rooftops has
several 3 or single phase supplies (different tariffs, metering, supply points
& maybe even different suppliers) supplying a mixture of the farming
operation "˜non-buildings' and the occupied "˜buildings' on the farm. Independent
commercial EPC assessments can cost from £200 £2,000+ where there are several
occupied office units or "˜buildings' on a farm and the recommendations to
upgrade the "˜buildings' may cost many thousands (but should be designed to pay
back in terms of energy saved).

Hence, the conclusion is often the
most straightforward way to install 50kW of Solar PV on most farms post 1st
April is to separate out the metered supplies to the "˜buildings' and the
"˜non-buildings', the Solar PV just offsetting electricity consumed by the
latter. It seems as shame that the revised FiT Govt. legislation (picking out
Solar PV as the only technology demanding an EPCD before its installation) has
the real life effect of potentially constraining the savings of installing the
technology to one portion of a farms electricity usage, but that is the reality
of making this work in real life situations.