Now you have established the viability of your renewable energy technology and secured the site, you need to work out the logistics and the costs of your project in more detail. To make this assessment you need to perform a feasibility study.

To complete a feasibility study successfully we recommend you instruct someone with the necessary experience, namely a renewable energy consultant. The right consultant will be able to assess your site taking into account the technical, environmental and planning challenges. We can recommend Renewable Energy consultants. Complete your project details and we will be able to advise you on the next steps of your project.

A renewable energy consultant will charge you several thousand pounds to complete a feasibility study. The following points are issues that will be researched in the feasibility study.

Grid Connection

Connecting to the electricity grid is an important step and can be costly. Eventually you will need to get a grid connection quotation but at this stage you want your consultant to talk to your Distribution Network Operator (DNO), the company that operates the grid system in your area and tell them your plans.  Your consultant will be able to get an estimated figure which will be sufficiently accurate to put into the project’s financial model. Find out who your DNO is here.

Technical and resource data

To improve the accuracy of your resource data your consultant may look to acquire data from Met Office weather stations locally or other organizations that may have permanent weather monitoring in place. This can be used in conjunction with standard data from manufacturers to estimate what the electricity output and what the other impacts (such as noise levels) created may be.

There will be additional considerations depending on the type of technology being considered.  For instance, large scale wind turbines need to be a minimum of 400 metres away domestic properties and it is good practice to increase this distance to 700 metres. This distance is based on acceptable noise levels. Wind turbines have been successfully developed to minimise noise and turbine manufactures have exact data on the noise output from their products.

Project Logistics

Costs and practicalities for your project will be determined by the type of technology you are developing.

Wind turbine towers and blades are huge components and transportation to site needs to be fully considered. Your consultant will identify that are suitable access roads, or take into account the cost of building them. Road signs and other ‘street furniture’ may need to be removed and replaced to get the components to site without a hitch. The implications and cost of this should be factored in by your consultant.

For a hydro system there is likely to be access requirements for civil engineering works, as well as for transportation of the turbine which can be of significant size.  Solar PV systems are, by their nature, likely to be less impactful in this regard.

Financial Modeling

You need to start looking at the economic viability of your project and your consultant will be able to help you set up a financial model. As your project progresses, you can keep adding the data that you acquire giving you an ever more accurate projection of the projects viability. You can start by including the cost of the grid connection, the renewable energy equipment, the civil engineering and using your wind speed you can calculate your expected electricity output. At this point, contact Good Energy and we will give you an estimate for your power.