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Energy team out in strength at big summer events

olatility in grain prices, ever-increasing energy costs and growing pressure for the Government to meet renewable energy targets all mean that more farms and estates with a large in-hand farming enterprise are asking if they should install their own anaerobic digestion plants.

Our energy team had a super couple of weekends at the Royal Highland Show and the Scottish Game Fair, writes Anneka Fraser, an Associate in CKD Galbraith’s Edinburgh office.

We are currently investigating the feasibility of installing a 1MW plant on a ­client’s estate in the west of Scotland. The estate has a 1,000-acre in-hand farming enterprise, growing wheat, barley and oats.

Thank you to all of you who stopped by our stands to enjoy a glass of bubbly with us and helped make the events so successful. A record 188,449 attended the 175th Royal Highland Show at Ingliston in June – almost 10,000 more than last year. The Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace Parklands was also a big success. The energy sector has recently been dealt two considerable blows — the ROC (Renewable Obligation Certificates) scheme is ending in 2016, a year earlier than expected, and the Climate Change Levy exemption is also to end earlier than expected. In spite of the uncertainty, we were encouraged to hear so many talking positively about the future of renewable energy in Scotland.The market may tread water in the short term, but we are sure

The answer is, in some cases, yes. For those with either electricity or gas grid capacity available nearby, and/or an on-site heat demand, AD can work well.

l CKD Galbraith’s energy team had a strong presence at both the Royal Highland Show and the Scottish Game Fair. that confidence in other technologies will grow. Did your child enter our sunflower ­growing competition at the Scone Game Fair in July? The competition results will be announced at the end of August with the tallest sunflower entry winning a £150 voucher to Go Ape, Scotland’s number one tree-top adventure. Go to www.ckdgalbraith.co.uk. For those of you who missed out on the fun, we, and our competition, will be returning to the shows next year, so be sure to come and see us!

Move to end FIT pre-accreditation ‘disappoints’ hydro group

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n July the Department of Energy and Climate Change published a consultation document on removing pre-accreditation from the Feed-in Tariff. This is available to solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects above 50kW and all hydro and anaerobic digestion (AD) projects. The British Hydropower Association is ‘disappointed’, complaining of ‘completely unexpected’ news. It has begun its own consultation with a view to responding and putting questions to DECC about its ‘motives’. In an update to its members, the industry association said it had established some answers by DECC about the changes. If pre-accreditation is removed, the Government will honour: • Pre-accreditations already pre-accredited but not accredited,

• Applications for pre-accreditations that are not yet pre-accredited, • New applications for pre-accreditation made prior to the change of legislation. The Government’s Comprehensive FIT Review (CFR) should be published at the end of August 2015 and the consultation will run for eight weeks. This will be enacted before April 2016, says BHA. “In the CFR, it is likely that cost controls will be applied by amending degression mechanisms.” Until the outcome of the CFR is known in early 2016, the future development of schemes is uncertain. “However,” said BHA, “for those schemes already in process there is no change and therefore the next two years will be busy [for those] trying to build all the preaccredited schemes.”

Page 4 | Energy Matters Autumn 2015 | www.ckdgalbraith.co.uk | Twitter: @CKDGEnergy

Over the past five years, due to price fluctuations, gross margins per acre have ranged from –£85 to more than £140, before subsidy. This has led to significant uncertainty in the farming budget, which has been

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It is essential to account for degression when considering the financial returns from Anaerobic digestion.

the main driver behind investigating the opportunity for investing in anaerobic digestion. We are still in the very early stages of feasibility, but the benefits do seem to be numerous. The annual fertiliser bill is significant and it seems that this cost could be reduced by about 80% by spreading the nutrient-rich digestate, a high-quality by-product of the AD process, rather than buying synthetic fertiliser. The system will of course need to be