Farm ‘New Energy’ used to be a traditional farm where harvesting peat played an important role in the business model. With increasing environmental concerns and looking for new business models with guaranteed income, farmer Pat decided to switch to the production of renewable energy. In the last five years two of his fields have transformed into high end energy producers with solar panels and wind turbines, by leasing his grounds to an energy company. He has sheep that graze the area in between and underneath.

Because peatland is unstable the wind turbines had to be founded on a deeper sand layer. Wind turbines on the bog do not provide any carbon credits. Pat does not agree with this. They would need to be part of a deal for rehabilitation.

He misses the cycle of the seasons and the change of work that is related to this, he’s considering to transform the other fields into wet agriculture. Furthermore he’s concerned about the quality of the soil underneath the solar panels in the long term. Until now he lacked the time to really dig into it.

Allowing the land to be classified as agricultural land to qualify for the EU payments would be one step in convincing this farmer towards peatland rehabilitation. A compensatory payment or credit programme for the loss of agricultural output.