Sun shines on poultry shed power

A Shropshire farmer stands to make £500,000 from harnessing the sun's energy over the next 25 years after he installed solar panels on the roofs of his chicken sheds.

Poultry farmer Paul Parton, from Market Drayton, has invested in the hi-tech panels in a bid to ease the long-term impact of spiralling energy costs.

Now he is hoping to make money every time it is sunny after teaming up with energy experts to deliver the eco-friendly scheme which qualifies for payments from the Government for feeding excess energy into the National Grid.

Mr Parton, who runs Parton's Poulets in Market Drayton, is among the growing ranks of farmers nationwide finding new non-agricultural means of generating income in an increasingly competitive industry.

He said with fuel prices rocketing and no sign of them slowing down in the current Middle East crisis, saving energy — and selling the remainder back into the national grid under the government's Feed-in Tariff scheme — makes economic as well as environmental sense.

Mr Parton chose West Midlands specialist company Hestia to design and install two 50kW systems at different farms which require only 300 square metres of roof area. Hestia director

Keith Bennett said: "Paul's decision to invest in solar PV was driven by a desire to diversify.