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Ballinaskeagh Priam Cornelia pictured with Andrew, Jim and James at the foot of their wind turbine.
income in comparison to spend. Northern Ireland Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCS), generated from the total energy produced, are sold at auction through The Green Yard and the whole project has been a big learning curve. Once you are producing energy, electricity is cheaper to buy. However, surplus energy isn’t worth a great deal, so it is more cost effective to use as much as possible ourselves. Excess energy is sold at 4.75p/kWh and ROCS are averaging 16.5p p/kWh at monthly auction.”
With most of the farm’s electricity requirements, including the power needed to run the two robots, being produced by the turbine, significant savings have been made as well as some income being generated from the excess energy sold, with ROCS sales being the major income from the turbine.
So far the family haven’t encountered any problems with the turbine itself and it is constantly monitored online by the parent company in America. “This is an essential part of the system. As technical faults arise they are sorted out online before we even know there is a problem,” says Jim. “When considering wind turbines it is important to choose a machine that suits your needs and site, but also a company that can provide and deliver back up. There are not many companies that sell, install and service machines. This was part of the reason we went with a local company Green Energy Wind.” And, while it is now powering a brace of robots these were the furthest thing from the family’s mind when they first looked into turbines. “Being closed with TB for five years had meant a major increase in numbers because after large losses initially, latterly there were only two or three being lost at each test with the herd remaining under restriction.”
When exploring options on how to cope with a larger number of cows the wind turbine was a major benefit in the family’s decision to build a new shed. “Cows were already being milked three times a day through the current 20:40 Dairy Master parlour and moving high yielders to robots seemed a natural solution. The Lely robots were installed in March 2015 and energy use increased by 80 kWh a day, but the wind turbine is producing enough energy to cover running them. Of the 275 cows in the herd 108 high yielders are
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