Great weekend for anyone with a wind turbine! Luckily not too much damage here, a few bits blown about but nothing too exciting. At least we don’t get cyclone winds of 180 mph like they had in Australia this week, now that would be scary, what a relief that no-one was seriously hurt.

We are gradually ramping up the orders as each passing day gets us closer to the mad spring rush. We managed to get a few more shelves up in the upgraded despatch area, laid some more drains, plumbed in some more irrigation, printed more labels, recycled some more plastic and tidied a load more plants, so we’ve not been slacking.

The week was peppered with meetings and visits which we try and get out of the way before it all goes bonkers and I have to say they were all really productive. I’m not a great fan of meetings, as I would rather get on and do something rather than sit around and talk about it, but I came out of each one thinking how rewarding they had been. Possibly the oddest one was one evening, being invited as an ‘expert witness’ to a City Council committee meeting, which was looking into how they could encourage a lower carbon economy in the locality through the planning process. I suspect I qualify as an ‘expert’ by default, being one of the very few to have actually got planning permission for a renewable energy project! I got off to a bad start by sitting through a planners presentation on current policy which was full of acronyms that I had never heard of. There were too many people and acronyms for me to stop them and ask what they meant, so I just nodded my head along with everyone else! Anyway I then did my bit to try and demonstrate how there are many business trying to do their bit on sustainability as a whole, how we approached our planning application, where the planning process held us up and then answered a few questions. Then I listened to a series of sharp intakes of breath as they listened to an expert on the current view on global energy use over the next 25+ years. The keys seemed to be the likely continued reliance on fossil fuels over that period, the increasing demand from a developing world and the increasing population size. The estimate for demand for oil exceeding available supply was 2015 18 months ago, that has now dropped to 2013. That doesn’t mean we will run out but that the price is likely to increase significantly. The recent Egyptian political unrest increased the oil price to over $100/barrel, at which point the OPEC countries usually increase supply to stabilise the market (a high price increases political unrest) but they haven’t, prompting fears that the taps are already fully open! Reserves are still being found but at a rate of only 1 barrel for every 2 barrels sold. Those new supplies are also more difficult to get to market, the tar sands in Canada for example use the equivalent of one barrel of oil in energy to extract two barrels of oil, not cheap and not brilliant on the carbon emission front. The age of cheap oil has gone unless there is a complete collapse of the world economy!

Luckily to balance out this slightly depressing news, I can report that I scored twice yesterday in a 3-3 draw at our local rivals Alton. A game marred by a load of grumpy old men trying desperately to get into the English whingeing squad. That’s the price you pay sometimes playing in a veterans hockey team, but it was all ok because, in spite of my modesty, I was brilliant!

Eco news

We have now heard that we have successfully fulfilled our planning conditions for the wind turbines and should receive written notification soon, this means we can actually start on the actual physical work. That will involve the imminent removal of the short sections of hedge where the turbine foundations will go in. This needs to be done before the hedges shoot and the nesting season gets started, which won’t be long away. This week should see the coming together of the costs and finances so we can start some real action, unfortunately that involves parting with a load of dosh. It looks like it will take us about two years in total from deciding to do the project to completing it, assuming no more hold ups. In that time the cost of the electric cabling alone has increased over 400%.

Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries