In this short blog with Ian Austin, Director and head of Utilities, Energy & Infrastructure at Davidson and Roberton, we find out a bit more about the move to green energy, a topic they will be discussing at AgriScot from 1.15pm to 2.15pm in seminar room two.
“The move to green energy will impact almost all farmers, even those whose land isn’t suited to turbines or solar panels. The National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) sets out guidance resulting in a general assumption in favour of planning being granted for the renewable developments that result in more green energy production which will significantly increase our current baseline.
This vast increase in demand for green energy will necessitate an overhaul of existing electrical infrastructure and the addition of swathes of new infrastructure to both produce and transmit this volume of green electricity.
So vast is this target, National Grid commented that, “Over five times the amount of new electricity transmission infrastructure will need to be delivered in the next seven years than has been built in the past 30 years”. With this level of development both in production and transmission, landowners, tenants, and their businesses will inevitably be impacted by the works – but with this comes massive opportunities for new income streams.
D&R has many years of experience in dealing with such projects, and we have highlighted 5 ways farmers can financially benefit from the Scottish push for greener energy and crucially, how to do it without incurring costs. These include renewable energy, energy storage, grid connections, access agreements, and electrical infrastructure, and we will cover these and how to make them work to your benefit, in our seminar “5 ways green energy could make more money from your land (and it’s not just about turbines)”.
