What were the challenges of installing solar power on a North Queensland farm?

One of the main challenges faced during the solar panel installation was the distance of the pumps from the main packing shed, with a distance of 1.2 kilometres, leading to the need for a specific power site. This site required a 100 kilowatt solar system to power a 90 kilowatt pump, which thankfully was a VSD variable speed drive system.

Other challenges included the distance from their supplies, such as cartons, fertiliser, and water sources for the channels. The farm covers more than 400 acres of volcanic land with basalt underground, which required soil tests to ensure a non-invasive grounding system was used, such as the Victoria-based Sure Foot design, to avoid hitting large basalt boulders.

Some of the challenges on this site is one, main packing area, getting access up into the roof area, how much kilowatts of panels and how much power is going to be required for the longer term. So future proofing, and also, the pumps is distributed quite widely throughout the different farms. So hence here is probably a good kilometre 1.2 kilometres from the main packing shed. So we had to locate, identify and prepare a site that's specific for their power requirements here. They have a 90 kilowatt pump here. Thankfully, it's a VSD variable speed drive, which requires a lot of power, potentially up to 90 average 70, 80, which is perfect for 100 kilowatt solar system.

Though this time of year, it does get quite hot, regularly temperatures can be anywhere between 32 up to 40 degrees, winter is quite good to just get nice and cool up here as well. Other challenges is again, just so far from all their supply, where they're going to get their cartons, their fertiliser, where the water comes from the channels and the cost of energy to distribute that. On this particular farm, I think it's around about 400 plus acres of land here.