A study of the financial viability of grid-connected wind turbines for farmers

There is a large niche market for wind turbines on farms in the UK but firm data on financial viability in today's restricted market for electricity, and in the liberalised market after 1998, are lacking. There are many farms where high wind speed, or high electricity demand, or a combination of both, will make effective generating costs low. A methodology using the SAC systems model has now been established to study individual cases in a large sample of farms, and to examine the cumulative outcome across a geographic region. It appears that a viable generating cost of under 1.5 p/kWh would apply to some thousand farms in Scotland, potentially adding 50% to the contracted wind generating capacity of SRO-1. The systems model provides a decision support tool to inform government policy in two important areas, renewable energy and rural development. (Author)