It was a close-run thing… heavy snowfall on Sunday night in the Midlands nearly prevented the delivery of the latest GrowSave* event in St Andrews, Scotland. Fortunately, however, the roads cleared in time and all the speakers made it for Tuesday’s event. Local growers attended to hear the latest news about the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), the manipulation of irrigation patterns for crop improvement as well as good control for energy systems through latest climate control computer systems.

Of particular interest to the audience was how heat pumps could be deployed as an alternative to biomass boilers or, indeed, as a support system for existing heating systems or increase heated areas. The generous RHI tariffs for heat pumps and any future renewable energy installation are an opportunity that should be considered in the next couple of years, as the scheme is currently set to end in March 2021. The new scheme rules, which are set to be introduced in early 2018, were laid out by GrowSave consultants and present further opportunity, as well as more rigid regulation about what can be heated. Some of these are not quite clear at the moment, so please watch this space for further news.

We would like to thank the speakers from EBTech, Priva, IPT and CMW for their support in this event. You can read more detail about this event here. 

*GrowSave delivered by FEC Energy on behalf of the AHDB Horticulture— a levy-funded organisation that serves the commercial horticultural industry in England, Scotland and Wales.