SERS Renewables has seen a noticeable increase in enquiries from poultry farmers wishing to install large systems on their land. Over the last four months the Staffordshire-based installer has installed a total of 200kWp of capacity across four farms in Herefordshire with many more enquiries being handled.
The company believes that upsurge in interest has been driven by a desire by farmers to invest in green technology and benefit from the return on investment available through the feed-in tariff system. Solar PV technology is particularly suitable for poultry farmers as automated egg-packing machines, large fans and general lighting demands associated with keeping chickens consume a large amount of electricity.
SERS were able to design and install the four systems, each with 208 panels, under an extremely tight deadline, allowing the systems to be registered before the March 3 reference date and therefore eligible for the 34p rate.
Three of the systems had Jinko 230W panels installed with each providing a kWp of 49.68. This is expected to provide a SAP annual yield of 42,143kWh. This output combined with FIT payments and energy price increases is expected to see the systems generate an overall benefit of £750,000 over the lifetime of the systems; providing an average annual return on investment of 35.89 percent.
Poultry farmer and system owner, Allan Panniers said “The installation was very quick and of no hassle to myself at all, I was able to carry on my day to day work whilst the SERS install team, who were very amiable and helpful, fitted the system. I was very pleased when I received the details of the system which SERS Renewables had designed for me and saw the payback period, this is a fantastic return on investment. A 40 percent reduction in my fuel bills is a significant amount of money and I’m looking forward to seeing the profit of my farm increase thanks to solar power”.
