How are farmers in Queensland taking advantage of solar power to decrease their business costs?

For rural customers in the farming industry, the biggest costs are typically water and the distribution of water through electricity. To irrigate their crops, they often need to pump water from deep bores or channels, which requires a lot of energy. Additionally, keeping produce cool in large cold rooms is also a major expense due to the warm ambient temperatures and chilling requirements. As a result, many farmers have seen an increase in tariffs for their farming requirements in recent years.

However, by using electricity to cover these costs and backing it up with solar, farmers can mitigate their energy expenses. Many farmers have already adopted solar systems, which have become more efficient and cost-effective over time. With payback periods of three to four years, it is a no-brainer for farmers to invest in solar systems to reduce their energy costs and increase their profits.

So a lot of our rural customers in the farming industry, a lot of their costs are either water, irrigation and how to pump that water, from sometimes quite vast distances, quite deep down in bore sometimes. And it requires a lot of energy, typically electricity. Some of them have even used diesel generators and pumps to do that. And then when we workout that sometimes you can use electricity to cover those costs, and then backend with solar. There's probably three main costs in regards to rural customers that they talk to us about. One is water, one is the distribution of water which is power, electricity is one of the biggest imposters. With that, it's either irrigating straight over channels or the dams that they have, or bores. And their produce that's got to be kept cool, in regards to the climates for down south distribution, the must have large cold rooms, which require enormous amount of power, and a lot of that power can be mitigated during the day. Funny enough, a lot of the avocados and bananas can chill down pretty quickly during the day because they're quite hot fruit. By the time it becomes night-time they can actually cycle out their refrigeration to a lower amount, requiring less energy during the night.

So, it seems to work very well with a lot of our farmers and their produce. The two biggest imposters we hear, is electricity power one, water is number two. And then, because of the ambient temperature up here's a lot warmer and their cold room and chilling requirements, a big cost is air-conditioning, refrigeration. So a lot of them, especially last say five to seven years, have seen a substantial increase in their tariffs for their farming requirements. And they've been talking amongst themselves to say, what can we do, and a few of the early adopters considered solar even though back then. Some of the solar systems where quite substantially higher, it was still viable for them. Now with increased efficiency, increase product quality, and warranty with that and increased costs of tariffs, really it's a no-brainer. A lot of these people seeing three to four year payback on their solar system for our rural customers.