Stephen Frankel: Solar PV

Stephen Frankel specialises in producing meat from high-husbandry rare breeds on his farm Carhart Mill near Wadebridge, Cornwall. An advocate of the use of renewable energy on his farm, he has recently added a solar PV array to his wood-chip boiler and 6kW wind turbine at Carhart Mill. He describes his interest in on-farm renewables as two-fold: first, he feels a real responsibility to consider his farm’s carbon footprint in the face of climate change. Second, he acknowledges that alternative energy sources are a wise investment with potentially huge rises in energy costs a genuine threat to the viability of his farm.

In March 2010, Stephen installed an 8m x 1.5m solar photovoltaic array on a south-facing roof of a listed barn on his premises. Taking advantage of their sunny location in southern Cornwall, the 2.96kW (peak) system is expected to produce 3000kWh per year. Stephen reckons the panels could produce about £1500 worth of electricity, including the generation tariff, power exported to the grid and savings from using home-generated power.

The panels and their installation cost £10,000, and thanks to the Feed-in Tariffs they are looking at a payback period of ~7 years. In the four months since installation, the panels have already produced 1317kWh and the wind turbine is in place to compensate any lower energy production the winter. Summing up the potential of on-farm renewables, Stephen says ‘One technology can never offer everything, but our renewable energies complement each other and work well as a mix. It means we're completely free of energy costs – and we have an extra income’.