There are several benefits of installing a single wind turbine for small agricultural businesses, farms and small-holders. Not only can they contribute to a reduced carbon footprint (by up to 2.5 thousand tonnes of CO2 over the typical life-span of a 50kW wind turbine), they are also an opportunity for individuals to generate income and save money on energy bills by selling back what they don’t use to the National Grid through the UK Government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiTs) scheme.
Not only that, many wind turbine installers are now offering wind turbine finance that enables potential owners to purchase and install a wind turbine on their property to required industry and planning standards. In terms of protecting their investment, most wind turbine finance schemes are designed to ensure that the owner retains a financial benefit through owning the turbine.
There are several examples of wind turbine finance available of which some are designed to work hand-in-hand with FiTs:
Purchase with secured borrowing
This option can mean that you purchase your wind turbine with a loan that is secured on the turbine. This then means that loan repayments are made by the owner from the energy savings made by using the wind turbine.
Purchase with secured borrowing on FiTs
Again, this is a type of secured loan, but rather than the loan being secured on the turbine itself, it is secured on the income generated from the FiTs payments you earn from energy that you don’t use and sell back to the National Grid. To get this type of wind turbine finance you’ll need to discuss your estimated wind speeds with the finance provider to ascertain how long it will take to repay the loan.
Land rental
This is great if all you want to achieve is a reduced carbon footprint and save money on energy bills because you simply pay a ground rent for the wind turbine – you don’t own it – and the FiTs payments go to the installer.
Reduced-Price Electricity
This method is similar to land rental in that you don’t own the turbine however there is no ground rent and you simply receive a reduced electricity tariff. All the FiTs payments go to the installer.
Depending on circumstances there are several options that can be used to own a wind turbine, allowing people and businesses with different financial circumstances to benefit from reduced energy costs, to generate an additional income and of course contribute to reducing their carbon footprint.
