By Matt Donald, pig & poultry producer, north Yorkshire
With constant monitoring of costs of production, we are getting increasingly nervous about electricity prices. Our current contract comes to an end next year and the obvious thing we can do to mitigate rising energy is to increase our solar installation. Of course, as slow to the party as we are, finding firms who have time for your phone calls is difficult.
Eventually we got a meeting together and I thought we were making progress. We already have the maximum Northern Power grid would allow us to have, which is not enough when it comes to our usage through summer. One option is some off-grid batteries. The next hurdle is the price of batteries. We are left waiting to hear back if we can use a system with limited export but we are advised this is unlikely.
In a country in need of a power solution, with farms able to easily contribute to the solution, using roof space and not farmland, it makes for a frustrating situation. Not only would we be able to reduce costs of production of hatching eggs, but also get closer to helping agriculture and the wider economy achieve Net Zero.
An overhaul of the power grid to take fluctuations in renewable energy may be a better investment than some proposed options. It is a shame it has taken a war for Europe to realise it has become over reliant on Russia for food and energy. I can only hope we have learnt something from this, that we must increase our food and energy security, if not for us, then for the next generation. I’m sure our new Prime Minister has it all in hand.