The NFU has paid a visit to Springhill Nurseries to show the ropes of the trade to their new colleague. "There's nothing better for our newer members of staff than to learn by seeing and doing," the NFU team says. Given the chance to visit Roly Holt's Springhill Nurseries just a short drive from Stoneleigh, on the other side of the Cotswolds, Jim and Tom gladly obliged.
A couple of weeks ago, they accompanied NFU Energy Account Manager, Lizzy Baker, and our Senior Technical Administrator, Jen Elves, to the site to check the progress of the energy management plan and learn all about one of our key customers.
Tom: "Roly's knowledge was impressive as he explained the multitude of interconnecting technologies that worked around the glasshouses/greenhouses, including efficient use of excess carbon dioxide and heat to improve the rate of photosynthesis for his plants."
Jim: "Yes, Visiting Sprillhill Nurseries was very exciting! Roly was extremely knowledge about the running of his site and the use of his renewable energy solutions. From what I gathered, he is running an extremely efficient site and is using his biomass boiler and all the heat generated to help power his site."
Tom: "In the latter half of the visit, we went to see the biomass boilers. We watched the fuel being mixed by their resident technical expert and were given time to observe the process from beginning to end."
Jim: "It appears nothing goes to waste here, from the CO2 to the drainage water from his tomato plants."
Tom: "Witnessing first-hand the efforts to move towards renewably powered agriculture was exciting and was well-captioned by Roly's joke about only missing a wind turbine from his collection!"
Source: nfuenergy.co.uk
