Customer Experience

Busz poultry farm in Holwierde.

Henri Busz, of Busz-Ladru in Holwierde, had three wind turbines installed in 2017. If you've ever driven along the N33, you might recognise the iconic design because they're right next to the road!

"I’ve never had to chase anything up. Ecoways automatically gets a notification if a turbine stops, and they sort it out. I can recommend this form of energy generation to other farmers."

Busz poultry farmer supplies himself with energy thanks to EAZ wind turbine

The Busz-Ladru farm consists of poultry and arable farming, divided between two locations in the far northeast of the Groningen province. Henri Busz took over the business from his parents, who also farmed in this region and started the poultry farming arm of the business.

The location in the village of Holwierde now has 34,000 'Beter Leven' chickens. The location just down the road, in Losdorp, consists of sixty acres of wheat and beets and some leased land for growing potatos.

Matching power supply.

Henri had begun the energy self-sufficiency process before the installation of the three mills, having installed solar panels at their farm in Losdorp.

For the Holwierde location, wind seemed like the better choice:

"Because of the uncertain balancing scheme and the continuous energy needs of our farm in Holwierde, we chose wind energy there. After all, the wind blows day and night while the sun only shines during the day."

Poultry farmer Busz ventilates his chicks with

The right solution.

According to our original calculations, Henri would ideally need three and a half mills. At that time, he had an annual consumption of 120,000 kWh, and each mill would generate about 35,000 kWh.

"That's why I considered adding solar panels, but the roof on the barn turned out to be unsuitable for that. Good thing in hindsight, because we went from 85,000 regular chickens to 34,000 'Beter Leven' chickens, and they have a lower ventilation requirement and therefore lower energy consumption."

Because of the uncertain balancing scheme and the continuous energy needs of our company in Holwierde, we chose wind energy there. After all, the wind blows day and night while the sun only shines during the day.

More than enough with wind power.

Eighty percent of the farm's energy consumption is the ventilation of the chicks. That machine is always on. Because the sun does not always shine but it can blow day and night, Henri chose wind energy in Holwierde.

"We ventilate more in Summer than in winter. Especially when the chicks are a bit bigger, we experience a peak in our consumption. In that respect, solar panels could be useful, because you have the most hours of sun in the summer, but at the moment we have more than enough from wind."

In good hands.

The installation went smoothly, as did obtaining the municipal permit and applying for the ISDE subsidy. Henri hardly had any work to do. Malfunctions have occurred over the past seven years, but even these were resolved before he knew it.

"I’ve never had to chase anything up. Ecoways automatically gets a notification if a turbine stops, and they sort it out. I can recommend this form of energy generation to other farmers. Provided it suits the farm, of course! If you have a constant energy need as a farmer, I would definitely do it."