wind turbines

[lawnseed]

does anyone have any experience of these. just got a letter electrics up another 18% one of the neighbours put a wind turbine about 2 years ago needless to say its absolutely screaming around with the winds this past few days. hes a dry btard when i asked him if he thought it was any good he told me to get one and see. they are 20 thousand that would still buy alot of electric.
another lad told me they were a waste of time, by the time they pay for themselves they are scrap. whats the story

[Orior]

There's no short cut to doing the sums boyo

http://www.nieenergy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/wind_turbine_guide.pdf

[lawnseed]

that NIE scenario is for real a lad up the road from from had a survey done on the top of his land he was told that his site was in the top ten in ireland and that payback on a massive wind turbine would be about 2.5 years so he went and got finance arranged and got the green light from the bank (hooray!) planning went smoothly and he was planning his retirement and thinking of a second one when NIE quoted him 150000stg to connect him... end of story

[theskull1]

Also there's the idea of having an individual wind turbine which is connected to the SEM grid so you can sell you excess electricity on, but NIE up here don't really make it worthwhile. My uncle was considering getting one installed but NIE were only going to buy the excess for 3p per kWh and sell it back to him for 7p per kWh.

Yeah I've heard that. What incentive is there when the likes of nie have you over a barrel.

[lawnseed]

Also there's the idea of having an individual wind turbine which is connected to the SEM grid so you can sell you excess electricity on, but NIE up here don't really make it worthwhile. My uncle was considering getting one installed but NIE were only going to buy the excess for 3p per kWh and sell it back to him for 7p per kWh.

Yeah I've heard that. What incentive is there when the likes of nie have you over a barrel.

thats what happens when stupid/smartarsed politicians sell off utilities to their rich mates, what should hve happened was that they sell off the power stations but keep control of the grid themselves and levy the power companies for the maintainance of the actual power lines then everyone could become a supplier at an equal rate set by the gird owners ie us

[brokencrossbar1]

Lawnseed if you're serious about it I have a friend dealing in them from fermanagh. Also deals in anerobic digesters if you know anyone with a few spare acres. He knows the answers to your questions so drop me a PM and I'll send you his details.

[sawel]

I noticed on last night's news in relation to the lady missing in Ballycastle that the Ballycastle club have a turbine.
Have many clubs wind turbines and if so what is the rate of return?

[el_cuervo_fc]

Lawnseed if you're serious about it I have a friend dealing in them from fermanagh. Also deals in anerobic digesters if you know anyone with a few spare acres. He knows the answers to your questions so drop me a PM and I'll send you his details.

you would need more than a few spare acres BCB.  About 150 maybe.

With regards to wind turbines, in the north anyway, the Government are offering "Renewable Obligation Certificates" (ROCS) at the minute.  Basically if you produce £20k of electricity to the grid they will add 3 times that value.  This offer will only last for another 2 years then the ROCS will reduce.  If you get a contract in these next 2 years it will last you for 25 years.  That's why at the minute there a large amount of people applying for planning permission for them.

A 250KW turbine in a suitable location may produce about £30k of electricity.  When the ROCS are added to this you could potentially be making £120K a year.  The cost of these turbines is around £400K.  So after 3 or 4 years they are paid off and you can sit back and live the life.

It seems the banks at the minute are more than willing to lend out the initial costs of these as long as you have the planning permission and the wind speed figures to back it up.

[brokencrossbar1]

Lawnseed if you're serious about it I have a friend dealing in them from fermanagh. Also deals in anerobic digesters if you know anyone with a few spare acres. He knows the answers to your questions so drop me a PM and I'll send you his details.

you would need more than a few spare acres BCB.  About 150 maybe.
With regards to wind turbines, in the north anyway, the Government are offering "Renewable Obligation Certificates" (ROCS) at the minute.  Basically if you produce £20k of electricity to the grid they will add 3 times that value.  This offer will only last for another 2 years then the ROCS will reduce.  If you get a contract in these next 2 years it will last you for 25 years.  That's why at the minute there a large amount of people applying for planning permission for them.

A 250KW turbine in a suitable location may produce about £30k of electricity.  When the ROCS are added to this you could potentially be making £120K a year.  The cost of these turbines is around £400K.  So after 3 or 4 years they are paid off and you can sit back and live the life.

It seems the banks at the minute are more than willing to lend out the initial costs of these as long as you have the planning permission and the wind speed figures to back it up.

I know, I am just teasing, actually it is closer to 350 to 450 acres to make the one he is working with viable.  It is a money making machine though.

[el_cuervo_fc]

I think if you can get around 200-250 it should be enough.  Once you get them up and running you're set.  You can take land in off other people too though to build up your quota.

[wanderer]

Lawnseed if you're serious about it I have a friend dealing in them from fermanagh. Also deals in anerobic digesters if you know anyone with a few spare acres. He knows the answers to your questions so drop me a PM and I'll send you his details.

Could you send me the details as well? Thanks

I have been looking into this for the farm, and have been getting all sorts of advice with some companies suggesting a single turbine under 250kw while others are saying its suitable for something bigger (500kw). I have heard stories that NIE have something in their contracts saying that once you go above 250kw, they insist on a SCADA system which would mean they could shut it down remotely at any time therefore severely screwing up any sums you have done on payback etc

Lawnseed if you're serious about it I have a friend dealing in them from fermanagh. Also deals in anerobic digesters if you know anyone with a few spare acres. He knows the answers to your questions so drop me a PM and I'll send you his details.

you would need more than a few spare acres BCB.  About 150 maybe.

With regards to wind turbines, in the north anyway, the Government are offering "Renewable Obligation Certificates" (ROCS) at the minute.  Basically if you produce £20k of electricity to the grid they will add 3 times that value.  This offer will only last for another 2 years then the ROCS will reduce.  If you get a contract in these next 2 years it will last you for 25 years.  That's why at the minute there a large amount of people applying for planning permission for them.

A 250KW turbine in a suitable location may produce about £30k of electricity.  When the ROCS are added to this you could potentially be making £120K a year.  The cost of these turbines is around £400K.  So after 3 or 4 years they are paid off and you can sit back and live the life.

It seems the banks at the minute are more than willing to lend out the initial costs of these as long as you have the planning permission and the wind speed figures to back it up.

Is the £400k figure based on recent experience? Is that the cost of the turbine alone or is their some allowance for civils, meica etc? Would you recommend trying to get planning yourself?

As far as I understand, the first step is getting a feasibility study done, and getting an anemometer stuck up to get solid data (the longer duration the better from what I can gather). Does anyone have any experience of this? How much would this likely cost? Would the banks invest in this stage? Would going with an investor or setting up a company be better?
The way I look at it is, they wouldn't be investing if they didn't have a high degree of certainty that they would be making money and a decent % increase within a few years, so why essentially give them the asset for a small rent sum for the land

Any answers/thoughts on my ranting would be appreciated

[el_cuervo_fc]

Is the £400k figure based on recent experience? Is that the cost of the turbine alone or is their some allowance for civils, meica etc? Would you recommend trying to get planning yourself?

As far as I understand, the first step is getting a feasibility study done, and getting an anemometer stuck up to get solid data (the longer duration the better from what I can gather). Does anyone have any experience of this? How much would this likely cost? Would the banks invest in this stage? Would going with an investor or setting up a company be better?
The way I look at it is, they wouldn't be investing if they didn't have a high degree of certainty that they would be making money and a decent % increase within a few years, so why essentially give them the asset for a small rent sum for the land

Any answers/thoughts on my ranting would be appreciated

That cost is based on a recent planning application that I submitted for a client.  It is only the cost of the turbine itself. 

Initially you would need to see if you would have a suitable general wind speed on the site.  anything over 6m/s is generally considered to be profitable.

In terms of planning the site would need to be assessed to see if it was suitable.  A typical rule of thumb would be that the turbine should be located more than 10 rotor diameters from the nearest neighbouring dwelling (your own dwelling can be closer).

There are a lot of factors that are taken into consideration for the application: Noise, impact on the landscape, aviation, telecommunications, bats, access, Ministry of Defence, Environmental Health etc.

Depending on the consultee responses the costs can add up.  The likes of noise impact assessments are usually over £1000, bat surveys something similar.  If the turbine can be located more than 50m away from any trees or hedges then a bat survey will usually not be required.

I can't see the banks investing before planning permission has been granted.  I would think they would wait until they were guaranteed the money would be safe before they would lend it out.

There are plenty of companies out there who are willing to take on sites however they will rent the land off you for around 10 years before giving it back.  Some of the figures I've heard quoted  are around 10% of the output generated. 

If you have planning permission for the turbine it puts you in a better position to negotiate with them.

[tbrick18]

There is going to be a new windfarm built beside our farm. I know they did the wind speed test, they had one of those test thingys up for about a year.
This thread has just made me curious now...could we now look for planning for a single windmill on our farm under this scheme?

[el_cuervo_fc]

There is going to be a new windfarm built beside our farm. I know they did the wind speed test, they had one of those test thingys up for about a year.
This thread has just made me curious now...could we now look for planning for a single windmill on our farm under this scheme?

Is the windfarm scheme approved?  If so you would need to look into the details of the application as the number of turbines may have changed or been reduced over the course of the application.  If you were to apply for another one in this area close to the other turbines you may judged on the accumulation of turbines.

[tbrick18]

There is going to be a new windfarm built beside our farm. I know they did the wind speed test, they had one of those test thingys up for about a year.
This thread has just made me curious now...could we now look for planning for a single windmill on our farm under this scheme?

Is the windfarm scheme approved?  If so you would need to look into the details of the application as the number of turbines may have changed or been reduced over the course of the application.  If you were to apply for another one in this area close to the other turbines you may judged on the accumulation of turbines.

Yeah as far as I know it's all approved. There was an article in the paper about it a few months ago about it anyway.
Where would I get the information on the application? Would the planners give it to you?