Renewable enterprises on UK farms: Assessing levels of uptake, motivations and constraints to widespread adoption

A postal questionnaire survey of 2000 farmers revealed that of the 393 farmers who responded, 14% had adopted RE (RE) enterprises, with half of adopters reporting slight to significant improvements in farm business performance in 2009. Solar panels were the most popular of the RE technologies available to farmers, compared to biomass related technologies. Of current non adopters, 65% may decide to invest in RE technologies over the next five years, with less than 10% likely to choose biomass related enterprises. It emerges that for current non adopters, their strategic preferences for future investment are biased towards solar and wind energy production suggesting a misalignment with government priority RE options. Motivations for adoption of RE enterprises are entrepreneurial in nature. Three major categories of constraints are identified ranging from economic, institutional/cognitive and normative/social acceptability constraints to investment. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.