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Earthmill proud to be part of the UK’s Renewable Energy success story

Despite all the noise and criticism of the renewable industry, the sector is continuing to succeed and contribute increasingly to the UK economy.

Overall green power now contributes 17.8% of electricity and over 5% of all energy.  While these numbers are growing rapidly, there is still a long way to go to hit the 2020 target of 15% of all energy from renewables and to reduce our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.  We still need a further £65 billion of investment to achieve the 2020 target.

Over 50% of this green energy currently comes from wind power and onshore wind is now the cheapest form of renewable including new nuclear and by 2020 is expected to be cheaper than new gas generation.

Interestingly, despite the criticism of the governments Feed in Tariff support system, the vast majority of the £906m per year invested in onshore wind goes back into the UK economy.  Even taking into account the fact that most turbines are manufactured abroad, 69% of all expenditure remains within the UK with almost 50% remaining within the region where the turbine is installed.  All this investment adds less than £5 to the average household bill.

Since the launch of Endurance’s new X series turbine which is manufactured in Birmingham, Earthmill are delighted to say that an even higher proportion of any turbine investment remains within the UK.  In fact over 13,000 people are now employed within the onshore wind industry in the UK.

Mark Woodward, Commercial Director of Earthmill commented “The onshore wind industry has been a great success over the last 5 years.  It contributes significantly towards our carbon emission targets, is cheaper than nuclear and all other renewables and can be rapidly deployed to enable us to achieve our 2020 green targets.  Distributed wind (single turbines often owned by a farmer or local community) has the added benefit of offering energy security and reduced price electricity to the local community.

Whichever party or parties are elected today, it is important we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!  Large scale wind farms may have limited potential in the future, but single turbines owned by local farmers or communities still has a long way to go and over 70% of the population back the use of wind as part of our green energy mix going forward.”

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£1m of new turbine planning permissions for growing Earthmill

Yorkshire-based wind turbine specialist Earthmill is celebrating after its planning team successfully secured consent for three separate farm-scale wind turbine installations worth over £1m across the UK in just one week.

Earthmill, which has grown from a one-man operation that started in managing director Steve Milner’s garage in 2009, now employs 34 people at its head office in Wetherby, has now installed over 200 small scale turbines during the last six years.

The latest trio of turbines to be given the go-ahead are in Keighley in West Yorkshire, St Stephen in Cornwall and Kendal on the edge of the Lake District.

Sam Dewar, senior planner at Earthmill said: “There is a growing recognition of the important role played by the small-scale wind turbines that are being installed across the country, both in terms of the contribution they make in reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels, but also the opportunity they offer farmers to diversify and gain a valuable – and sustainable – additional income stream.”

He added: “Although relatively small farm-scale turbines are embraced by many people, the journey to successfully gaining planning consent to install a turbine can be a long and arduous one and it’s essential to have an experienced team on your side.”

Earthmill’s three latest turbines to be given consent encountered a variety of obstacles along the way, including a lengthy public consultation process in Cornwall that saw over 50 emails and telephone conversations exchanged with the local residents, parish council, ward councillor and the local school. The turbine position also had to be relocated twice before submission.

Added to this, concerns over the noise of the turbine’s blades meant that Earthmill’s planning team had to work with the local environmental health officer on a weekly basis to amend its ‘noise report’ no fewer than six times.

Terry Fort of Brighton House Farm, Keighley, said: “Earthmill’s planning team have the experience to know that it is worth seeing a project through and that, with know-how and tenacity, planning hurdles can be cleared. We were really impressed with their willingness to go the extra mile for us during the whole, complex process.”

He added: “We are over the moon to have finally received planning permission and once we get the turbine up and generating electricity it will help cut the farm’s fuel bills as well as enabling us to do our bit for the environment.”

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Earthmill scoops wind industry award in record year

Wetherby-based wind turbine specialist Earthmill, has been awarded a top industry accolade for 2014, a year when the firm installed 66 farm-scale turbines up and down the country, from Aberdeenshire to Cornwall. The business scooped the Endurance Wind Power ‘UK dealer of the year’ award for its outstanding customer service and expertise in helping clients resolve planning issues.

Steve Milner, managing director of Earthmill, said: “Being named dealer of the year is a really big deal for us – and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Earthmill team.”

He added: “We pride ourselves on our great customer service. There can be many challenges involved in the process of installing a wind turbine, from the planning stages to getting the turbine up, running and generating green energy, so it really pays to have an experienced and tenacious team on your side. We always go the extra mile to overcome problems along the way, which has resulted in the 66 turbines we successfully installed last year alone!”

Endurance Wind Power, which presented the award to Earthmill, designs, manufactures and tests some of the most advanced wind turbines in the world, and has more than 600 installed across the UK.

Ed Kenny-Levick, European sales manager of Endurance Wind Power, said: “Earthmill have really earned this award. Not only are they one of our largest dealers, but they also provide an excellent service, going the extra-mile to help their customer’s through the process from start to finish.”

Farm-scale turbines are becoming an increasingly popular option for farmers and landowners as the efficiency of turbines continues to improve. “There is an army of farmers who have become small, independent power generators,” said Mr Milner.  “It’s a win-win situation because not only do strategically-located farm turbines help UK farmers lower their energy bills, reduce CO2 emissions and diversify their business income, but they are also making a significant contribution to decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels.”

 Since starting out in 2009 from Steve Milner’s garage in North Yorkshire, Earthmill has grown to employ 36 staff and has an annual turnover of £13m. The company relocated to a new head office Wetherby last year.

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Earthmill launches £2.5m record breaking crowd-funded investment

Wetherby-based wind turbine business, Earthmill, has launched a UK record £2.5m crowd-funded investment that enables individuals to invest in farm-scale turbines.
The deal is based on the success of the company’s initial fund, which was the UK’s first crowd-funded investment aimed at small-scale turbines and succeeded in raising £1.25m in just eight weeks earlier this year before closing, earlier than anticipated and over subscribed.
“We were obviously pleased with the take up of the initial fundraising and decided that, in the current climate of expensive bank lending, crowd funding in green tech and renewables made sense again. There is an appetite among investors for debt returns underpinned by these existing and highly productive assets, and this will help us drive further growth and fund ten new turbine installations across the UK,” said Steve Milner, managing director of Earthmill.

The firm’s latest offering guarantees investors who come on board in the first month an interest rate of 7.5 per cent per annum over three years, with 7 per cent for those who invest later in the scheme. The fund has been launched by renewable energy crowd-funding platform Trillion Fund. Investments start from £50 and loans will be secured against ten already operational farm-scale turbines, four of which are in Yorkshire: in Keighley, Driffield and Wetwang.
Steve Milner said: “There is a growing recognition that the medium-scale individual wind turbines being installed by farmers are a positive addition to the landscape. Not only are they built on a more human scale than wind farm turbines but they are adding to the power generated by renewables and reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels.”
He added: “Investors who wanted to enter the wind turbine market used to need land, and between £250,000 and £600,000, to buy and install their own turbine. Crowdfunding is a brilliant way of enabling almost anyone who’s interested in wind power to get involved and directly benefit from renewable energy.”
Earthmill, which employs 36 staff, relocated to a new head office in Wetherby this year. So far, the company has installed more than 200 small-scale wind turbines on farms across the UK. The company was ranked 17th in the 2014 Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s highest growth companies.
Further details on the fund, and details of how the investments work, can be found at www.trillionfund.com.

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Earthmill in Sunday Times Fast Track top 20

Yorkshire farm-scale wind turbine specialist Earthmill has been ranked in the top 20 fast growing UK companies in this year’s Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table, published this weekend, which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales over three years.

Based in Wetherby, Earthmill has been ranked at number 17 in the listing, after increasing turnover by 113 per cent over the past three years. The business was started out of managing director Steve Milner’s garage in 2009 and has grown to employ 42 people with a turnover of over £13m. The company has installed more than 200 small-scale turbines on farms across the UK. In 2013 it received a £4.1m investment from private equity house Connection Capital.

Steve Milner, Earthmill managing director, said: “I am so proud that we have been included in this prestigious ranking. It’s a testament to the Earthmill team and their brilliant entrepreneurial, can-do attitude. So many farms are under financial pressure. By installing a small scale turbine on their farm they are able to improve their financial position, secure their future energy costs and reinvest in other areas of their business.”

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Earthmill boosts Scottish team as more farmers look to wind revenues

Earthmill, a leading supplier of farm-scale turbines, has strengthened its Scottish operation with a new sales team.

The £15m turnover firm already has more than 200 turbines on farms across the UK and is targeting Scotland as a key area for growth in 2015. Earthmill has already supplied six farms in Scotland with state of the art turbines to generate power and boost farm incomes. A further 12 Scottish turbines are under construction or in development, with another 38 turbine planning applications currently being progressed in the country.

The new Earthmill team in Scotland is made up of turbine specialists Mark Allen and Richard Hortin, bolstered on the ground by directors Mark Woodward and Steve Milner, with business development manager Oliver Leake. The company is continuing to grow its presence in Scotland to support the five-strong Scottish team.

“Scotland is our key market for growth, and we want to keep growing our team with specialist local knowledge and also the most extensive renewables experience,” said Earthmill director Mark Woodward.

“The industry has come a long way in the past five years, and we have seen suppliers invest to deliver some amazing advances in turbine technology. The latest farm scale turbines we now have access to are super efficient and with the consistently strong winds we see in many areas of Scotland, farmers here stand to benefit the most of all landowners across the UK,” added Mr Woodward.

Farmers can boost revenues by as much as £100,000 per annum with revenue from the generated electricity fed into the grid, and substantially reduced power bills, as well as boosting the country’s overall power generation capacity.

“Scotland is home to some of the best turbine locations anywhere in the UK. We expect to see dozens more farmers benefit, and provide local power generation for communities over the next 12 months,” said Mr Woodward.

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Ex-hurricane Gonzalo delivers record windfall for UK ‘energy farmers’

The stormy tail end of ex-hurricane Gonzalo might have dampened the start of the week across the UK, but for many diversifying farmers the weather brought a power generation windfall.  Farm-scale turbine specialist Earthmill which has over 200 turbines on UK farms has released data from its fleet showing record power generation on Tuesday 21^st October.

The firm’s collective turbine output peaked at over 10.5MW, and on the same day the entire output from all UK wind turbines also clocked up a new record average of 5.39 GW contributing 16% of the UK’s power, more than the country’s nine nuclear plants (13%) and every other type of generation with the exception of gas (25%) and coal fired (34%) power stations.

A typical farm scale turbine in a high wind area can deliver up to £10,000 in energy revenues in just a month, and even more during periods of sustained high winds.

“The miserable weather we regularly see during the British winter does have a welcome side effect for thousands of farmers and landowners generating power,” said Steve Milner of Earthmill.

“Whilst high winds can make traditional farming more difficult especially in exposed locations, this is exactly the type of weather forecast that our customers can feel good about as it significantly lifts their turbine generation rates and boosts their incomes,” he added.

During the week that saw the UK’s gas fired capacity reduced after a devastating fire at Didcot B station in Oxfordshire, the data showed that UK wind power is increasingly playing an important part in the country’s vital energy generation mix.

“There is an army of farmers who have become small, independent power generators and who are now contributing significantly to the total of the UK’s power needs,” added Mr Milner.

“The subsidies provided under the Government’s Feed in Tariff Scheme are reducing, but the efficiency of the most advanced design of turbines is more than countering these reductions.  That means we have crossed the line where wind is an economically viable income stream for farmers in an increasing number of locations,” he concluded.

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New FD appointed at growing farm turbine specialist Earthmill

Wetherby-based farm-scale renewables specialist Earthmill has appointed Andy Mill to its board as finance director.

Mr Mill (35), originally from Edinburgh, is a former PwC accountant and has spent the last five years as a finance director and financial consultant to firms including Lexia Solutions and Andrew Page. He will take over the financial management of £12m Earthmill from commercial director Mark Woodward.

“The business has grown by more than 50 per cent over the past two years, and we needed to strengthen the board with a dedicated finance director to enable us to plan for the fundraising and further growth that is on the horizon,” said Mr Woodward.

“Andy has the experience of five years as finance director in a fast moving group, and a background with a big four firm that is ideal for us,” he added.

Earthmill was founded in 2009 by managing director Steve Milner and has grown to become one of the leaders in medium-scale turbine sales and installation in the UK.

With over 175 turbines in the ground on farms and rural land across the UK, the firm is the largest customer of leading turbine supplier Endurance, and is looking to grow in the area of service and maintenance, as well as sales of turbines.

Typical farm-scale turbines are approximately a third of the size of the largest commercial units and cost between £250,000 and £600,000 to buy and install.  The turbines, which can be installed individually or in pairs, generate power worth up to £150,000 per annum for farmers operating them in suitable locations.

Recent changes to the Government’s Feed in Tariff Scheme (FiTS) have reduced the amount of subsidy available to turbine operators but this has not dampened demand for the increasingly efficient turbines.  Improving technology coupled with rising energy costs has made turbines an increasingly attractive investment option for farmers across the UK looking to safeguard dwindling revenues.

“Earthmill is a great Yorkshire success story. The business has grown organically from an entrepreneurial beginning in Steve’s garage, through city investment last year and most recently raising £1.25m of finance through a crowd-funding first that completed last month,” said Andy Mill.

“The rapid growth and innovation right through the organisation has been remarkable, and I am looking forward to helping maintain that trajectory.  The sector is maturing now as subsidies reduce, and has seen a great deal of consolidation over the last year or so that is a massive opportunity for us. Earthmill has a great position now as a really well-established professional outfit and one of only a handful of serious players in a market that has plenty more potential for growth,” he added.

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Earthmill raises £1.25m in crowd-funding first

Earthmill has raised over £1.2m through the UK’s first crowd-funded investment aimed at farm-scale turbines. The fund has closed a month ahead of target, just eight weeks after it was launched by renewable energy crowd-funding platform Trillion Fund in mid June.

Mark Woodward, commercial director of Earthmill, said: “We were convinced that the idea to open up the investment opportunity to people in community who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to invest in a wind turbine would be well received, but we are already fully subscribed and closed the fund a month ahead of target.  The number and broad range of investors goes to show that there are large numbers of the population that support the use of wind turbines to produce clean energy.”

“The fundraising has been a great success, and will allow us to invest in five additional small-scale turbines on suitable land that generate large amounts of energy that can either be used to reduce the local farmers electricity bill or exported back into the grid.” he added.

The fund guaranteed investors returns of 7.25 per cent per annum over three years and the minimum investment was just £50 with loans secured against five operational farm-scale turbines across Yorkshire.

Earthmill, which employs 32 staff, recently relocated to a new head office in Wetherby, and will continue the expansion that followed a £4.1m equity investment by Connection Capital in October last year.

Steve Milner, managing director of Earthmill, added: “Individual small-scale turbines on farms are becoming increasingly popular, and people are starting to understand that farm-scale turbines are stand-alone units, and much smaller and less visible than their bigger wind farm cousins.  The crowd funding model allows both the farmer and the wider community to benefit from the installation of a wind turbine if they wish.”

Before the launch of the fund, investors who wanted to enter the wind turbine market needed land suitable for their own turbines, and required between £250k to £600k of funding to buy and install a turbine.  This scheme has opened up the opportunity to invest in wind to a much wider audience.

“The rising energy costs, and improvements in turbine technology and efficiency, are creating a sustained demand that requires further capital investment. We will be looking to raise more capital in the future to continue installing the most efficient farm-scale turbines on the most productive land available,” said Mr Milner.

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Cornish farmer to host wind energy event

Farmers and land owners across the South West will have the opportunity to learn more about the possible cost savings from wind generated electricity by visiting a free green energy event taking place in Cornwall later this month.

Local livestock farmer, Tim Dart will host the event at Carnwinnick Farm, near St Stephen, on Tuesday, 12^th August between 10:30am and 3pm and it is the last in a series of open days organised on farms across Britain by specialist farm-scale wind turbine installers and suppliers Earthmill.

The open day will showcase the Endurance X29, which had its first UK installation in October on a nearby dairy farm in Liskeard, Cornwall and now generates the equivalent electricity used by almost 150 homes.

“Falling farm incomes and rising energy costs have led to an increasing number of farmers considering wind power as an additional source of revenue. Farmers and landowners can effectively future-proof their electricity costs by becoming a green energy generator.”

“The event is a great opportunity for farmers to see a fully installed turbine in action and chat to our team of experts about their farm’s wind energy needs,” said Steve Milner, managing director of Earthmill.

Modest in size, the 225Kw X29 is manufactured in the UK and requires only a 30m mast, which makes it ideal for farms with high power requirements.  The generator operates at a low level resistance, allowing the turbine to start producing energy at a wind speed of just 4 m/s.

Bookings for the open day can be made by calling Earthmill on 01937 581011, and specific directions to the location of the event will be given.