Solar energy making financial sense down on the farm

some people might look at renewable energy and identify it as a green policy or identify it as a political statement. But we’re not about that.

We want to look at the financial case of any energy system that’s going in the property and present it to the farmers that way. So we try to keep away from going to the politics side of it and just look at it from the basis of financials

Farmers turning to renewable energy, ABC Radio PM David Mark reported this story on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 TIM PALMER: It’s as different a scene as one could imagine from the back rooms in Paris where negotiators are now wrestling over the details of a climate deal but on a dusty outback cotton farm in far west New South Wales Andrew Gill is reaching for the same goal – a reduction in carbon emissions.

With 400 solar panels installed to run his irrigation bore, he’s at the vanguard of farmers in Australia who are embracing renewable energy.

And as David Mark reports, it’s a movement that has the backing of traditionally conservative farming organisations.
David Mark reports……..

ANDREW GILL: I don’t know if I’m prepared to say that (laughs). We’ve got a very, very big diesel bill. Depending on the seasons, yeah we buy into the hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel a year.

DAVID MARK: So we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars?

ANDREW GILL: Basically yeah.

DAVID MARK: Which is why he’s been looking for an alternative. And today, installation is beginning on a large solar array, which will power the bore.

STEVE HARDING: Today we’re just setting out the ground array, so we’re just marking out where all the…

DAVID MARK: Steve Harding is installing the solar panels. He’s the managing director of Solar Pumping Solutions in Mudgee.

STEVE HARDING: Well it comes down to the economies of getting water out of the ground and solar panel costs have dropped dramatically over the last five years, and we expect them to continue to drop , and this is a unique application where we can lower Andrew’s production cost of his crops.

ANDREW GILL: It’s going to have 100 kilowatts of solar panels to run our pump which is actually 400 panels……

ANDREW GILL: I guess the first reason or the main reason we’re looking for an alternative is the cost. There are other benefits, obviously there’s a big one with carbon. You know, we won’t have as much pollution. There is a lot of other people looking to do things in agriculture and in the cotton industry especially to try and reduce the amount of pollution and carbon, and if this is a small way of doing that on our farm, it’s definitely a win.

DAVID MARK: Andrew Gill has been getting advice from the rural lobby group, New South Wales Farmers.

The organisation has employed an energy innovation manager, Gerry Flores, to advise farmers on the use of renewable energy.

And while farmers have a reputation as a conservative group, Gerry Flores says that’s precisely why they’re taking up the new technology.

GERRY FLORES: I think it makes great sense. Renewable energy and the conservative mindset of being more independent as well, I think that matches. I guess what’s been a bit of an issue is that a lot of the development in this, it’s been attached to a political agenda. So some people might look at renewable energy and identify it as a green policy or identify it as a political statement. But we’re not about that.

December 9, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News

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