Grants on offer to help save energy

The RDPE funding is available for equipment that will help producers save money and be more efficient, with farmers able to apply for up to £25,000.

These grants are available to help them use less energy or fewer raw materials such as fertiliser and to reduce the amount of CO2 they produce.

There are seven different energy-saving pieces of equipment that can be bought with the funding – heat capture units, voltage optimisation, heat exchangers, rainwater harvesting, slurry or silage store roofs including floating covers, but only where these costs are part of a wider rainwater harvesting project, slurry separators and slurry distribution kit.

Margy Hall, from Woolrow Farm, a 500-cow dairy farm in Huddersfield, received £9,520 to purchase a trailing shoe and a heat capture unit in 2009.

Ms Hall said: “The savings we are making are invaluable to the farm,

“Since installing the heat capture unit, we have saved £2,000 a year on our electricity bill. The trailing shoe has not only saved us money on fertiliser, but means that we can spread slurry in summer to make better use of its nutrients.”

Farms apply through CO2Sense, the not-for-profit company that helps businesses cut their carbon emissions and grow. The funding itself comes from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), jointly funded by Defra and the European Union.

Since being established its bosses claim to have saved farms in Yorkshire £145,747 by helping them to purchase new, more efficient equipment.

Vicky Wren, of CO2Sense, said: “This funding gives farms the chance to make long-term changes and now that there are even more technologies we can support.”

The deadline for applications is March 7. To see if you are eligible, or if you wish to apply, contact Ms Wren on 0113 237 8461 or email at [email protected]