For various reasons we think that solar panels generating electricity suit our requirements at Holt Farm quite well. The perfect installation site appears to be the Wain House roof [in the foreground of this picture of Holt Farm ] creating enough energy for all four cottages.
At the moment we are gathering together the final bits of information before submitting the listed building consent forms. We were under the impression that this type of panel in a domestic situation was allowed under "permitted developments" from a planning point of view. How wrong we were, we definitely require listed building consent and some of the planners are quite insistent that we need to submit a full planning application.
Since we made our initial enquiries some months ago the Feed In Tariffs have been considerably reduced which reduces the financial rewards. As the panel market experiences a decline in demand it seems likely that the initial cost of the panels will be subject to a considerable reduction. It would seem that high oil prices are here to stay and if the last fifteen months are any guideline the cost of electricity will keep increasing too. So it's still all go on this project.
[Pictures from D Cosford 5dEnergy]We have also investigated a more substantial investment on Rhydunnog farm where our son Jon runs a three phase cold store using a diesel powered generator. The biggest stumbling block in that case is the cost of bringing in a three phase power supply with lines of adequate size to export any power generated and not required on the farm. The quote from Western Power Distribution was about fifty per cent greater than my expectations!
In time we will report on any progress but that will not be very soon!
