http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/redesign/showdoc.asp?docid=54265994&accnum=1Renewable energies to transform farmers into ‘energy moguls’ within 20 years
CAMBRIDGE, UK, March 1, 2006 (Refocus Weekly) Farmers will move into a strategic position in world energy markets within two decades, concludes a British research analysis.
Farmers receive money for siting wind turbines on their land, but farms with an area of 1 km©˜ could be worth US$600 million to manufacturers of solar PV technology, explains ‘Farming Renewable Energy’ produced by CarbonFree, a UK-based research company that has completed the study of the renewable energy market for farms.
Large-scale capture of wind and solar energy requires the management of significant areas of land and, if the market for renewable energy continues to grow at the current rate, farmers will occupy a strategic position within the energy market within two decades, it concludes. While conventional energy producers are starting to look beyond oil and petroleum as resources, farmers need to look beyond ethanol and start to build comprehensive energy supply businesses.
“For several decades, the energy market has been dominated by a handful of companies and closed to new entrants,” says analyst Peter Kruger. “Advocates of a distributed energy generation model, the so called ‘Internet of Energy’, are particularly interested in farmed renewable energy ... because this source of power is readily available and is a good fit with their plans for a reformed energy market.”
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