I was minding my own business on the farm when our farm manager came to find me. In her office was a representative of the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The woman, let's call her Karen had arranged a meeting with our farm manager (you know; Jennifer) to discuss our two unregistered generators -- we purchased two large generators which burn the biogases that we produced in our biodigesters. We have the biodigester for two reasons, first because we anticipate that the cost of energy will rise in the UK (it already has by 37% in five years) and the Department of Environment's new (and very expensive) rules for slurry disposal, and water pollution. Field leaching in reality is the problem.
Let's be clear we built the biodigesters because we KNEW that legislation was in the planning stage (2018) that would affect how our farm would deal with cattle waste. The biodigester and generators are turning expensive waste into revenues for our farm. After numerous visits from the electric utility our farm is no longer attached to the grid, and as such our energy production activities fall outside of the supervision or preview of the Department of Energy. They only regulate energy that is transported over public land for sale to third parties (we checked, we double-checked to be sure that the new warehouse was covered).
The problem is that because we are not recognized as a green energy producer, we don't have access to green energy credits. Jennifer explained to Karen that we did our sums and assumed that the value of the green credits rose fivefold from their current levels, and the current cost of complying with the Department of Energy, and the Utilities rules and regulations. The expenses from being recognized as a green energy producer would be twice as large as potential revenues. In short, right now all the regulatory costs of participating in the green energy market would cost about 10 times what revenues we would generate. Karen could not understand that when your expenses are twice your likely revenues, this is not the kind of activity a private enterprise will consider.
Jennifer came to get me for two reasons (1) She had spent the previous hour explaining this to Karen and she was about to blow up, (2) I'm the owner, and what I say goes. So I walked into the room, and said to Karen, we will be happy to comply as soon as the Department of Energy can guarantee that the costs of joining the program will be equal or less than the total revenues we can expect. Karen, of course, said she could not guarantee revenues, and I turned the story around and said, but you can guarantee the expenses. Will the Department of Energy guarantee that the regulatory costs of participating in their program will not exceed the revenues we will be happy to comply.
Jennifer is young, and brilliant but doesn't understand the "monkey" concept. I on the other hand am old and crusty but I am very familiar with the "monkey" concept. Karen left us after this and I just sat in Jennifer's office. Jennifer asked me what I had done, and I replied; I took the monkey off our backs and put it on the Ministry of Energy's back. It is for them to come back and guarantee that the expenses of their green scheme are net zero. I looked at Jennifer and said, don't worry you will never hear from Karen again. She is not here to solve a problem but to ensure that policy is implemented. Next time someone from the department shows up simply repeat what I said, we will participate when the department guarantees that the fees and expenses will always be equal to or less than the total revenues we generate.
The truth is it is not the Department of Energy's job to do what I asked, they have no flexibility in setting up all the fees for the Green energy programs. But, the solution is no longer our problem, it is theirs, and so we can ignore them until the parameters change (maybe someday in the distant future...)
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