Wind Farm Development Opportunities – A 21st Century Crop

Battle McCarthy is working with renewable energy developers who are always looking for new sites to locate wind farms. The process of securing planning consent for a wind farm development is a complex process that can take 12 – 18 months before a decision is reached. Nevertheless, harnessing wind power to meet our country’s energy needs is an important and necessary step and rural land owners can be a part of this change.

Rural landowners can potentially realise an additional revenue stream from developers who will pay an annual rent for allowing wind turbines to be placed on their land. There are many financial models available to the landowner, nevertheless a good return can be expected from any of these.

If you are a landowner looking for ways of expanding the income of your business by allowing wind farms to be developed on your land, the first steps that must be taken would be to undertake a feasibility study and environmental impact assessment to determine if your land is in the right location and that a wind farm installation will not have an adverse effect on the local ecology.

There are many factors to consider, however Battle McCarthy can, on behalf of landowners, carry out  preliminary assessments to determine project viability. Where initial indicators prove encouraging, Battle McCarthy can also act to bring landowners and developers together to discuss and agree upon an action plan to take the proposal through planning.

If you think your land could potentially be a good site for locating a wind farm,  contact Battle McCarthy and we will help you take the first steps in realising the full potential of your land.

Wind Energy Presentation

For a short presentation on wind energy by Battle McCarthy, click here.

MEP Response to the London Plan

THE LONDON PLAN POLICY 4A.9

In 1992, the UK signed the Kyoto protocol committing it and other nations to cut emissions of various greenhouse gases, the most significant being carbon dioxide.

London is a special case as it consumes in a year as much energy as Greece and Portugal and more than Ireland. In order for London to make a difference, it must not only save energy, but also make it from renewable sources. Taking the lead from the national targets, London has set its own targets in the London Plan which should lead to a reduction in London’s carbon dioxide emissions by 23% by 2016.

To reach these challenging, yet achievable targets, the Mayor has defined an “Energy Hierarchy” to help organisations involved in building new developments contribute towards making London a leading city for sustainable energy. When each stage of the Hierarchy is applied in turn to an activity, it will help ensure that London’s energy needs are met in the most efficient way:

• Be Lean – Use less energy
• Be Green – Use renewable energy
• Be Clean – Supply energy efficiently

The London Plan Policy 4A.9 states that:

“The Mayor will and boroughs should, in their DPDs adopt a presumption that developments will achieve a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 20% from on site renewable energy generation (which can include sources of decentralised renewable energy) unless it can be demonstrated that such provision is not feasible”

ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY

The assessment follows the format set out in the GLA Renewables Toolkit “Integrating renewable energy into new developments: Toolkit for planners, developers & consultants”.

The aim of local and national energy policy is to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and thereby reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Therefore, in common with the calculation methodology applied in the 2006 revision of Approved Document L of the Building Regulations in England and Wales, the GLA methodology assesses site energy consumption, and the contribution of renewable energy systems to reduce energy consumption, in terms of carbon. Where Part L 2006 uses units of kilograms of carbon dioxide per year (kgCO₂/year) the GLA Toolkit uses units of kilogram of carbon per year (kgC/year).

The assessment involves the following steps:

• Calculation of ‘baseline’ carbon emissions for each use on the site, with reference to published benchmark data for annual energy consumption by fuel type per square meter (kWh/m²) – converting into kgC/m² using the carbon emission factor used in Part L 2006, or using GLA Toolkit reference table data for each building type – provided as total annual carbon emissions per square meter.
• Calculation of ‘predicted’ carbon emissions for each use on the site, taking into consideration the extent of energy demand reductions that will be achieved by energy efficiency measures compared to the available benchmark data – to update the benchmarks to reflect the changes to Part L, or where specific energy efficiency measures such as CHP are included.
• Selection of a shortlist of technically feasible renewable energy systems for assessment based on a review of a range of low or zero carbon (LZC) technologies.
• Calculation of contribution of each proposed renewable energy technology to reducing the predicted carbon emissions for the development, using carbon emissions reduction factors provided by the GLA Toolkit reference tables, or where appropriate assessment tools to calculate the potential for carbon emissions reduction for specific renewable energy technologies.
• Calculation of costs of technically feasible LZC technologies, based on benchmark values for the shortlisted technologies.
• Calculation of reduction of predicted carbon emissions, for the development achieved by applying the proposed renewable technologies.
• Inclusion of proposed renewable technologies within the planning application for the development to meet the 20% carbon emissions reduction requirement.

The definition of ‘renewable energy’ used in Planning Policy Statement 22 is:

“those energy flows that occur naturally and repeatedly in the environment – from the wind, the fall of water, the movement of oceans, from the sun and also from biomass. Policies in this statement therefore cover technologies such as onshore wind generation, hydro, photovoltaics, passive solar, biomass and energy crops ,energy from waste (but not energy from mass incineration of domestic waste), and landfill and sewage gas”

This definition has been widened by the UK Government by the use of the term ‘Low or Zero Carbon Energy Technologies’ (LZCs) within the ADL documents. The carbon emissions reduction from applying these technologies when compared to the conventional technologies has also been accepted as ‘renewable energy’ under GLA terminology.

In order to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20%, a combination or all of the following types of technologies could be integrated as part of the building’s environmental and engineering systems:

• Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels
• Solar Thermal Systems
• Ground Source Heat Pump
• Bio-diesel fuelled CHP plant
• Wind Turbines

SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS

Solar photovoltaics (PVs) convert energy from daylight into electricity using a semiconductor material such as silicon. When light hits the semiconductor, the energy in the light is absorbed, ‘exciting’ the electrons in the semiconductor so that they break free from their atoms. This allows the electrons to flow through the semiconductor material producing electricity.

Solar PV panels are best mounted at an incline with a southerly orientation, although orientations between south-east and south-west are viable.

PV panels are expensive, and hot water heating is usually a more cost effective option. There exist ways to cut the relative cost of PV panels by using Building Integrated PV panels (BIPV).

SOLAR WATER HEATING

Solar water heating systems convert solar radiation to heat carried by water for use in space heating or the provision of domestic hot water. Solar water heating systems normally operate with a back-up source of heat, such as gas condensing boilers. The solar water heating pre-heats the incoming water, which is topped-up by the back-up heat source when there is insufficient solar energy to reach the target water temperature.

Solar water heating systems are best mounted at an incline facing south, although orientaions between south-east and south-west are acceptable. Solar Hot Water Panels are far more efficient than photovoltaic and could provide the development with a better return on investment.

GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMP

Ground source heating takes advantage of the stable ground temperatures of 12ºC to heat either air or water to provide energy efficient heating (and optional comfort cooling) to a building. The energy flow is driven by the temperature difference between the ground and the circulating fluid which can be used to deliver heating (and optional cooling) to the building.

The direct bore hole type of installation requires a number of boreholes with an average depth of 100m with a minimum centreline distance of 6m separating each bore hole. This is the type of system that will require close scrutiny by the Environment Agency.

Alternatively, closed loops can be installed along the piles or pad foundations to take advantage of the foundation excavations to maximise the earth-connectivity of the system. The drawback for this option is that an indirect system requires a great deal of surface area to be in contact with the earth and is usually more cost effective in non-urban sites where more land area is available in which to place the earth-connected piping loops.

Proposals to install a Closed Loop Ground Source Heat Pump and/or a direct bore hole system to satisfy a large percentage of the heating demand for the development could be a cost-effective option. This system also offers the option of providing ‘free-cooling’ to its occupants via the use of the constant 12ºC deep-earth temperature.

BIO DIESEL BOILER

A boiler that works on natural gas provides an efficient system, but as it utilises a non-renewable source of energy, it does not contribute towards the 20% requirement. If the source of energy is switched to boi-diesel fuel, the boiler system becomes a highly cost-efficient method to meet the London Plan. The bio-diesel boiler system would use conventional diesel engines running on ‘bio-diesel’ fuel to generate heat for the development. At the moment the choice of liquefied boi-fuels is methanol, ethanol, and vegetable oils (such as rape seed oil). The US Department of Energy tests in 2001 showed that bio-diesel blends of B30 and below (30% or less) can be used as replacement fuel without significant risk – typically a B20 blend is used in place of conventional fuel oil. Too rich a blend can lead to problems of corrosion of rubber seals, so pure bio-diesel has not been commercially used.

The installation of a bio-fuel boiler may require additional approval form the relevant emissions authorities for the exhaust and flue discharge.

WIND TURBINE

Wind turbines are modern, high technology descendants of the old technology windmills that have been around for centuries. The difference is that now the kinetic energy of the wind is used to turn a turbine to generate electricity as opposed to moving water or turning a grist mill wheel. There are two types of wind turbine, one being the three bladed type (the horizontal-axis variety) which faces up-stream or down-stream of the wind and where the rotational movement of the blade is connected to a generator to create electricity. The other type is the vertical-axis design, which is by far the most flexible type of wind turbine and is best suited for the more urban sites as it is more cost effective and operates in any wind direction.

One of the big issues with wind turbines is the available wind speed. Apart from direction, approximately 4.0 m/s wind velocity is required as a minimum before the turbine will begin to generate electricity.