Scotston Wind Power case study

After a turbulent decade for agriculture, family farming business JS Baird turned to renewable energy to provide a reliable income stream.

Its 600 acres of land near Dundee support a range of farming activities including organic laying hens, cereals, cattle and sheep as well as being home to four families.

“We wanted to secure an income from something not dependent on agriculture and which could help smooth out the peaks and troughs you get with farming,” explained partner Diarmid Baird.

His father had originally investigated installing a wind turbine on the land in the early nineties but at that time finance had proved difficult to secure.

As well as access to funds since becoming easier, the introduction of the feed-in tariffs also strengthened the business case for the £1.25m investment.

An engineer by training, Diarmid managed the project to erect a single Enercon E48 turbine.

All the turbine’s output is for export although in effect 20 to 30 per cent of output will be used on the farm.

“We have been converting some of the systems,  such as heating in the houses,  to electricity to reduce costs.”

SmartestEnergy’s presence on the ground in Scotland through business development manager Iain Robertson was an important factor in the decision to choose the company as its power purchase partner.

“Iain was very helpful in assisting us as the project progressed and it was good to be able to deal with someone we could meet with face-to-face to discuss issues,” said Diarmid.

“The flexibility of the arrangement we have with SmartestEnergy was also important. I believe electricity prices are only going to go one way and our power purchase agreement will enable us to benefit from that in the future.”

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