How is a solar powered water pump helping Doug's cattle farm in the Northern Territory?

Doug Lovegrove, a cattle farmer near Adelaide River township, talks about his farm's transition to solar energy. The farm breeds Grey Brahman and Droughtmaster cattle, with some being sold overseas. Due to the increasing cost of power, Lovegrove decided to switch to solar energy two to three years ago. The initial outlay was expensive, but the system has now paid for itself, and it's maintenance-free.

Lovegrove has installed solar panels to power his bore and pump water. This provides him with extra water and helps him cope with the water shortage during this time of the year. With a simple flip of a switch, he can access the water he needs, without relying on traditional power sources.

Name's Doug Lovegrove. And we're at just outside of the Adelaide River township. We run two types of cattle here, some Grey Brahman and the Droughtmaster. We've got, yeah, we're just breeding cattle and selling a few overseas. Just the cost of power was going up and up, everything goes up, nothing comes down, and decided to go solar probably two or three years ago, and we're just about solar right through now.

Yeah, I mean, you've got a little bit of an initial outlay and then from then on it's maintenance-free. I put the bore in about two years ago and decided in the last couple of months to get solar put on it. I want more water here. So yeah, I think it's, you know, like it's a very expensive outlay for a start, but it pays for itself over the years. This here goes underwater in the wet season. So you couldn't run power down here anyway, so it's up high enough, so it's out of the high water mark, no power going through it, so everything comes from the free sun.