Themes and areas of interest
Redesigning policies that affect land use and energy
We work on designing policies to help land use industries reduce GHG emissions. We investigate how local energy masterplanning, biomass resource allocation, non-food crops and novel land-use practices can optimise calories-per-hectare returns, and are interested in designing focused rural energy strategies that simultaneously meet sustainable rural economic development, emissions reduction and community resilience goals.
Methane abatement and trading
The Kyoto Protocol assigned methane a global warming potential of 25 over 100 years. However, methane has an atmospheric life of 12 years – its true impacts over the next 15 years, the critical period for stabilising emissions, is far higher. We are working to get policy to take account of this fact and target resources accordingly.
Assessment and development of appropriate technologies
Securing hard information on which technologies work best on farms would remove barriers to the deployment of renewables.
Biological carbon capture and storage
Stimulation of in-soil photosynthesis, biochar, dried algae and peat bog restitution have all been proposed as measures by which the land use industries can sequestrate carbon more rapidly and securely than through tree planting. We are working to assess the potential of these measures and aggregate farm-based initiatives to reduce emissions into certificates tradeable on carbon markets.
Community-owned Energy Services Company (ESCO)
We are setting up a Community-owned energy services company to fund emissions reduction activity in Hampshire and test novel finance and governance models for community ownership of energy generating capacity.
Local production and consumption of electricity and fuels
We are assessing the impact of proactive promotion of the local production and consumption of fuels in terms of local employment, value added to the local economy and the potential for creating social capital through developing local fuel networks.
Single Farm Payment / Environmental Stewardship reform
The single farm payment could be adapted to reward emissions reduction from renewable energy production and second-generation sequestration activity.
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Cooperative/community energy production
Development of novel funding and new business models will play an important role in rural energy generation. We are particularly interested in shared ownership and models with strong community benefits, in part to secure more support for local renewables projects but also to develop local fuel networks and increase the resilience of rural communities.
Connecting cities and hinterlands
We are interested in:
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Optimising agriculture and energy production on the urban fringe |
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Understanding how local community groups and others can work with farmers on the urban fringe to increase local food production, reduce emissions and improve the stewardship of these traditionally troublesome locations. |
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Rural energy production for urban consumption |
Trading of emission savings from farms
Significant emissions savings can be achieved from changes in land use and renewable energy generation on farms. We wish to explore the possibility of aggregating these savings and transforming them into to tradable instruments to raise additional funds for emissions reduction activity.
Novel finance models to fund renewables on farms
Existing State Aid rules bar farms from most forms of financial support relating to renewable energy. The Farm Energy Project is keen to develop new forms of funding and new business models to help farms to diversify into producing electricity and fuels.
Economic impact of ‘low carbon policies’
There is a widespread perception among local decision makers that action to reduce emissions will incur costs that cannot be recovered, place an additional burden on local authority budgets and hinder economic development. It is our view that we need to reframe the debate on low-carbon policies, presenting them in terms of their economic development. This should give decision makers the confidence to enact low-carbon policies secure in the knowledge that they will have a beneficial economic impact.
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