More than 500 planning applications have been submitted across the UK for farm wind turbines.

A fall in income, coupled with rising energy costs, is said to be the reason as an increasing number of land owners turn to turbines as an additional source of revenue.

The increase is ahead of changes to the regulations.

All proposed new turbines need to be registered with regulator Ofgem by December 31 and hundreds of farmers are now working to beat the end-of-year deadline and benefit from the maximum available revenues.

Figures from the leading turbine suppliers show that more than 200 farm-scale turbines could be connected to the grid by the next Feed-in Tariff deadline in April next year.

“More and more farmers are looking beyond traditional crops to survive and the financial benefits of wind turbines for farms are becoming more widely known,” said Steve Milner, managing director of Earthmill, one of the UK’s only specialist farm-scale wind turbine installers.

“Impending reductions in the Government’s green energy incentives are also fuelling record demand.”