Renewable Energy & On-Farm Power
Renewable Energy: For Advisers & Agents
What Renewable Energy changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. On-farm renewable generation converts a cost into a revenue line and reduces exposure to energy price volatility. This module appraises solar, wind, hydro, heat and battery options against actual measured consumption, manages grid connection and planning, and monitors generation and self-consumption once installed.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Renewable installer
Quoting
Needs an accurate consumption profile to design against.
- Audit actual energy consumption
- Model generation options for the site
- Model self-consumption and battery benefit
- Check grid connection capacity
Estate manager
Multiple buildings
Needs a portfolio view of connection capacity and opportunity.
- Model generation options for the site
- Model self-consumption and battery benefit
- Check grid connection capacity
- Assess planning requirements
Grain store operator
Seasonal drying load
Needs generation matched to a highly seasonal demand.
- Model self-consumption and battery benefit
- Check grid connection capacity
- Assess planning requirements
- Appraise capital and financing
End to end
How Renewable Energy runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Audit actual energy consumption
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Model generation options for the site
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Model self-consumption and battery benefit
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Check grid connection capacity
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Assess planning requirements
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Appraise capital and financing
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Install and commission
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Monitor generation and self-consumption against model
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Renewable Energy does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Energy consumption audit by building, process and time of day
- Solar generation modelling against roof orientation, pitch and shading
- Self-consumption modelling — the number that actually drives the return
Operate and monitor
- Battery storage sizing against the consumption and generation profile
- Wind, hydro and biomass option appraisal where site conditions support them
- Grid connection capacity enquiry and application management
Comply and evidence
- Planning permission and permitted development assessment
- Capital appraisal with payback, internal rate of return and sensitivity
- Power purchase and export arrangement comparison
Analyse and improve
- Generation and consumption monitoring once installed
- Heat generation and building heating decarbonisation options
- Electric machinery and vehicle charging load planning
Payment schedule
What is due, and when it lands
Farm support arrives in instalments from several bodies on different calendars. Set against your own overdraft, the question is not how much but when — so the ledger is ordered by date, not by scheme.
| When | Payment | From | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | Improving Farm Productivity Grant | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Expected |
| February | Farming Transformation Fund | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Agreed |
| February | Rural England Prosperity Fund | Local authorities | — | Eligible |
| June | Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| March | Countryside Stewardship | Defra / Natural England / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| June | Environmental Land Management Capital Grants | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
- — Agreed and scheduled
- — Claimed, awaiting payment
- — Eligible, unclaimed
What the statuses mean
- Agreed
- Under a signed agreement with a scheduled payment date.
- Expected
- Claimed and assessed; payment date per the published standard.
- Eligible
- Your holding appears to qualify but nothing is claimed yet.
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Renewable Energy
The problem: Needs self-consumption modelled properly, not a generic yield figure.
What they do
- Audit actual energy consumption
- Model generation options for the site
- Model self-consumption and battery benefit
- Check grid connection capacity
What changes
- Self-consumption percentage
- Energy cost per unit of output
- Payback period achieved
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Self-consumption percentage
- 02Energy cost per unit of output
- 03Payback period achieved
- 04Generation against model
- 05Grid export value
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.