Renewable Energy in the Countryside

Climate Change is high on the political agenda and the UK Government is committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. One of the main means of doing so has been by encouraging the production of energy from renewable sources. In 2005, when the first edition of "Renewable Energy in the Countryside" was published, only wind power received sufficient funding to be commercially viable in specific locations and most other renewable sources remained unutilised. Since then, however further measures have been introduced to encourage the development of biofuel processing plants and to bring a new focus on the use of biomass. These currently all depend upon the use of land, at a time when incomes from agriculture and forestry have continued to fall so that more farmers and landowners are having to look at alternatives. This new edition examines the present opportunities and identifies the potential risks and shortcomings, including: the viability of current policies and the implications for the future, the issue of rising fuel prices, revised planning requirements for renewable energy in new buildings, current opportunities for large and small scale wind turbine developments, new economic measures for biofuels, including RTFO and tax concessions, contracts being offered to growers to supply new fuel processing plants; the threat of imported feedstocks; on farm processing of biodiesel; current opportunities and constraints for growing and supplying biomass; and small scale biomass boiler systems. New and relatively untried renewable energy comprises a wide range of issues that need to be properly assessed. This book provides that insight.