More than a quarter of all farmers have led to a surge in the use of solar panels and wind turbines, according to The Guardian.
“Renewable energy is promising to overtake rural tourism as a secondary income for the agricultural sector, with 200 megawatts of power – enough for 40,000 households – installed, according to joint research by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and NatWest bank,” according to the article.
Research found that one in six farmers will have solar photovoltaic (PV) systems by the middle of 2012, with one in five producing clean electricity. NFU also predicts as much as 15 percent of all U.K. electricity from renewable sources will come from the land by the end of this decade, according to The Guardian.
Jonathan Scurlock, chief renewable energy adviser to the NFU, told The Guardian: “The NFU has been encouraging farmers and growers nationwide across all sectors to diversify into renewable energy for the past few years, but we are amazed at this level of uptake already.”
