Autumn brings the several sector conferences and events, a chance to round-up the year’s challenges and next year’s opportunities. This year has been a bit of a milestone year for GrowSave with 4 such events attended and energy updates provided.
Firstly there was the TGA conference, this year held at Warwick University, energy is at the forefront of grower’s minds, demonstrated by this being the first session of the day. Coming so soon after the government announcement of its plans to support UK business’ with energy costs the GrowSave session covered the important points that growers should be aware of, highlighting areas where further detail was needed to be certain of support levels, especially in regards CHP (which eventually got clarified in late November!). The session also covered the opportunities for moving away from reliance on gas CHP and gave a Net Zero update on carbon calculators.
The CGA event took a slightly different approach, with a focus on alternative sources of CO2 and how it may be reduced or be more efficiently used within the glasshouse. However, inbetween the TGA conference in Sept and CGA conference in Oct there had been another change of leadership in government and a refocus on energy measures so additional detail on latest thinking was also given.
By the time GrowSave was invited to speak at the Berry Gardens Growers’ event in late November further changes and updates on government thinking were available to discuss – specifically the autumn statement which described the importance for UK business to focus on energy efficiency and reducing reliance on energy from gas to ensure longer term future. The session talk also highlighted how UK energy market pricing is extremely volatile and big savings (and losses) can be made by taking alternate approaches to energy purchasing, such as flexible trading.
On the same day as the BGG event, one of the other members of the GrowSave team (Roger Stones) gave a practical session on energy efficiency opportunities to the Poinsettia Growers group in Lincolnshire. This covered the potential areas to look for efficiencies and the importance of conducting thorough energy audits.
Building on this theme GrowSave intends holding two workshops in January 2023 looking at the practical energy efficiencies in glasshouse growing, in conjunction with two of the well renowned greenhouse installation companies – EBTech and Bridge. Further details and booking forms for these will be available in due course.
