Renewable Energy Installer February 2014 | Page 33

Knowledge: Wind
Breaking barriers
Julian Martin, founder and ceo of ICE Renewables, says 2014 will be a strong
year for the wind industry despite an expected cut in the Feed-in Tariff
ccording to recent studies by
Farmers Weekly and EON, just
under half of farmers said that
tackling rising energy costs was
a key priority for 2014, with 60 percent of
farms planning to do so in the coming year.
However, farmers reported that managing
energy use was complex, Feed-in Tariff
structures were complicated and tackling
energy use too time consuming.
With wind turbines seen as the
most profi table renewables investment, I
highlighted what the barriers were and how
to overcome them at the Farm Business
Innovation Show at London Olympia in
November.
Some barriers to entering the market are
real but some are in fact only perceived.
High standards: Julian Martin, ceo of ICE
Renewables, chairs Renewable UK’s Small
and Medium Wind Strategy Group which
is tasked with setting standards for wind
turbine installations
A
Problem solving
There are obvious site constraints such as
proximity to airports and neighbours and
ecological barriers. Technical barriers can
include wind speed and turbulence, grid and
capacity, installation constraints and the need
to have a good operations and maintenance
strategy.
However, the sector is increasingly
fi nding that one of the main barriers concerns
delays in the planning and appeals process.
65 percent of wind projects are still getting
through planning (eventually), but the time
delays and diffi culty in accurately predicting
the success of a planning submission is
putting customers off even entering the
process, where planning costs for medium-
sized wind projects can be in the region of
£25,000.
Increasingly, turbine owners also are
worried about not upsetting their neighbours.
Diffi culty in accurately
predicting the success of
a planning submission is
putting customers off
Interestingly, in reality, research show that 7
in 10 people would welcome a wind turbine
near to them.Campaigns like Stand up for
Wind, know the facts provide simple tools to
help remove the myths surrounding wind and
provide an excellent education resource.
Profi t leader
Companies such as ICE Renewables have
experienced a strong surge in pre-accredited
Feed-in Tariff (FiT) wind turbine projects
adding to a strong pipeline for 2014.
However, in April 2014 the sector is
expecting to see a cut in the FiT, but wind
turbines will still remain the most profi table
renewable technology and the FiT is still likely
to be one of the highest rates across Europe.
The industry is continuing to work
on reducing total installed project costs,
effectively tracking any degression that
might be seen in coming months. At ICE
we have done this through continued
process improvement. We remain committed
to offering competitive Power Purchase
Agreements via our partners and value for
money products and services for new and
existing customers.
A good operations and maintenance
strategy is increasingly a priority for
manufacturers, developers and customers
as it can extend the lifetime of your turbine,
reducing costs and increasing availability.
Nightmare stories of customers being left with
turbines not working, no proper operations
and maintenance contracts, a lack of turbine
parts and installers who have walked away
are real issues facing the industry.
The way ahead
The industry trade body, Renewable UK, has
set out to improve medium wind standards
and the small medium wind strategy group
chaired by ICE Renewables has been tasked
with developing these standards. There will
be a national MCS approved medium wind
standard in 2014 and an international IEC
medium wind standard later in the year which
will cover turbine design, site assessment,
installation and operations and maintenance
across the whole of the medium wind sector.
So overall there is a lot of opportunity for
farmers to take advantage of wind energy in
2014, despite the anticipated change to the
FiT. Improved processes and standards will
also help drive industry improvements, which
will only be to the advantage of the customer.
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