Renewables - self sufficiency, is it possible without financial assistance? 10 March 2022 at 9:47AM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 3 replies 61 views

Barnconverter1

Hi.  We have spent the past 4 years converting a barn in approximately 1 acre.  The site is very exposed with a South facing slight slope, ideal for renewables.  Our idea when starting this project was to have a number of wind turbines and ground mounted solar panels to allow us to be energy self sufficient and have built two plant rooms to accommodate batteries etc., for the renewables.   We have planning for 5 x 1.5kw Turbines and around 50 Solar panels (was thinking of 4 arrays of 16 panels).  We already have a Ground Source Heat Pump and get an RHI payment quarterly as a 'Pay Back' but cannot find any similar schemes that would help us in the Acquisition of other Renewables?  We would also need to purchase a Battery System to store the energy not used. We would prefer a larger more substantial wind turbine as the smaller turbines may not survive the gusts on our exposed site, but they are disproportionally more expensive the bigger they get. (kw wise).  Although this is something we had planned and want to do, we cannot see a way of achieving it now without winning the Lottery!!  If anyone has experience in this area, we would welcome some advice.  

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

Your proposal is ambitious although unlikely to be practical, and there are no grants for small-scale PV or wind generation.

Barnconverter1 said:

Although this is something we had planned and want to do, we cannot see a way of achieving it now without winning the Lottery!!  If anyone has experience in this area, we would welcome some advice.  

Buy Lucky Dip tickets, you're less likely to end up sharing your win with other people.

Coastalwatch

I mused at the prospect of erecting a wind turbine on our property but as you've discovered at small scale they are unreliable at best with very limited output. We have a large PV array which covers us well for eight months of the year. For the remaining four months I gave up on buying/erecting a wind turbine and bought into Ripples offer instead with a minor share in their full size version.

As for a slight south facing slope then ideal for PV and/or for planting a vineyard!

Solarchaser

There are grants/loans available for certain things in Scotland if you live up here.