Due to our extensive farming systems and our continued commitment to planting and growing trees, our carbon footprint is satisfactorily low so it doesn’t take much to make us self-sufficient in energy use and sustainable in carbon production.
However we have already installed a ground source heat pump in the ‘big house’ and we have now installed 50kw of photo-voltaic panels to help run this; the resulting green electricity is stored in our 4 Tesla batteries until we need it and any excess is put into the grid to help the national effort.
We are exploring the possibility of renewable electricity production and mini grids to supply the cottages at each of the farms as well as a much larger investment in some south facing land which we hope the planners will be able to support.
In this way, we can help maintain the planet for human survival, help the local economy, help our residential tenants and neighbours as well as reducing our dependency on fossil fuels to power our lives.