PHOTOVOLTAIC SELF-CONSUMPTION ALLOWS POULTRY FARMS TO SAVE UP TO 17% PER YEAR ON THEIR ENERGY BILLS. 

• A typical farm with a consumption of 1,800 MWh/year and a bill of around €210,000 per year could save more than €36,000 per year with self-consumption and pay back the investment in around 7 years. 

• The data are drawn from actual projections made by Norvento, a Spanish company specialised in renewable energies and industrial self-consumption, based in several projects for poultry farms in projects under development and planning in Spain. 

Lugo, 29^th November 2017.- Electricity generation systems based on renewable photovoltaic energy for self-consumption allow poultry farms to considerably optimise the costs of their electricity bills, even considering the different tax burdens in force in the Spanish market.

Norvento, a Spanish company with extensive experience in renewable energies and technologies for industrial self-consumption, has carried out a study with real projections. The study calculates the energy savings that would result from the use of renewable energies in the activity of poultry farms.

The studies carried out by Norvento take a typical farm with an energy consumption of just over 1800 MWh per year, an expenditure of €210,000 in its yearly bill and an economic investment in the adoption of the photovoltaic technology of approximately €285,000. This facility would achieve yearly savings of 17% of their electricity bill. Translated into euros, the savings would reach €36,000 each year.

This would be achieved thanks to the farm’s capacity to self-produce 20% of the energy it needs for its activity. This is achieved through a surface area of approximately 1,600 m² of latest-generation photovoltaic panels (polycrystalline), whose energy production capacity is among the highest. In this way, including the tax burden established by current legislation in Spain (the so-called sun tax) for self-consumption, the return on investment would occur from the seventh year onwards. 

The consumption pattern of poultry farms is particularly compatible for this type of installation, given its similarity to the generation pattern of photovoltaic panels. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a high level of self-consumption of the electricity produced, which has a direct positive impact on the profitability of the projects. In a case like this, more than 99% of the electricity produced would be consumed on the farm itself. 

Thus, the energy self-consumption, achieved in this case with photovoltaic technology, provides several benefits for the owners of the facilities:

1. Financial savings on the electricity bill: being able to reduce the consumed energy means a direct saving on the energy expenditure, which farms may then use for different strategic means.

1. Protection against the volatility of market prices: this year, the drought and other natural phenomena will have a high impact on the energy market. According to the analysts, electricity bills could reach record highs by the end of the year. Having a source of renewable energy that does not depend on the grid allows farms to preemptively protect themselves from these market disruptions.

1. Sustainability in the supply chain: Investing in renewable energies and self-consumption, farmers and businesspeople of the sector will meet the increasingly higher requirements of the industry, like sustainability in the supply chain. This is increasingly demanded by the different actors involved, such as meat producers, large retail chains, food brands, consumers, etc.
   

Technical summary

Norvento has worked on a projection based on the typical farm, with a constant energy consumption of 1,814 MWh per year. This means a cost of approximately €210,000 per year, and with consumption peaks of up to 550kW (which means an extra cost of €3,000 per year due to penalties). The objective in this example is to recover the investment in 7 years and achieve an annual saving of 20% of the energy consumed from the grid (in this case, around €36,000 per year on average).

The solution of this projection would be based on the installation of state-of-the-art photovoltaic technology with a required investment of approximately 285,000 euros to cover a surface area of 1,600 m2, thus obtaining a total return of 13%.

Technical details of the typical farm

• Yearly energy consumption: 1,814 MWh per year.
• Initial energy costs: €210,000
• Energy costs with self-consumption: €174,000
• Total savings: 17% on the electricity bill, which equals €36,000.
• Technology: installation of 803 polycrystalline photovoltaic panels of 330 Wp.
• Estimated investment: €285,000.
• Return on investment achieved in 7 years 
• Ratio of energy obtained through photovoltaic generation: 20%. 

About Norvento

Norvento is a Spanish renewable technologies company with a comprehensive capacity for action. Based in Lugo (Galicia), the company is 100% Spanish-owned and has been operating in the market for more than 35 years. The activities of Norvento cover manufacturing technology, design, promotion, building, and operation of centralised generated renewable energy facilities (mainly wind farms), generation for distributed generation for industry, and ad hoc energy engineering solutions for customers.

With an active presence in five international markets (the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, Poland and Italy), Norvento has more than 700 MW in operation and development.