A sunny summer turned into big savings for Waikato dairy farmer Malcolm Jones. His farm near Matamata now runs its entire milking shed on solar power.
Sunlive reported that Jones runs 600 cows on 200 hectares at Te Poi. He first spoke with Supreme Solar director Sam Mathis at the NZ Dairy Expo in Matamata last year. But he'd been thinking about going solar long before that. "It was built around the power bill," Jones said.
Before installing solar, his power bill for the milking shed alone sat around $3,800 each month. That included running the milking machines, keeping milk cool, and pumping water. "For the last four months it has been nothing," he said.
Jones didn't settle for a small setup. Many farmers start with 70 to 80 panels. He decided to cover the entire roof of his 54-a-side rotary shed. That's 380 panels, capable of producing up to 100 kilowatts of electricity during daylight hours.
Installing solar power was smooth. The farm needed grid approval and a solar inverter to convert the panel's DC electricity into AC power for use.
Mathis explained that while output dips on cloudy days, New Zealand's climate still offers good solar returns each year. Excess energy can either go back into the grid or get stored in batteries. Jones said this has been helpful for the five houses on his farm.
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But for Jones, it wasn't just about saving money. "It's a cleaner, free form of power that can yield a return on investment for the farm," he said.
Mathis told Sunlive that solar boosts a farm's value. A property that produces its own clean power attracts buyers who want eco-smart operations. "Solar helps promote the image of an eco-smart farm that helps to preserve the New Zealand environment," he said.
Rural Energy, another agri-solar provider, has already installed 300 farm solar systems across Waikato and expects to hit 1000 within three years. Its CEO, Shaheer Azizi, said that as farms add automated equipment, electricity costs rise. Power alone now accounts for about 15 cents of every kilogram of milk solids produced.
New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) has backed the shift, offering $10 million in credit to Rural Energy to help farmers adopt solar.
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Using farmland for clean energy isn't new. Agrivoltaics, the mix of farming and solar power, is gaining traction. One study showed that solar panels can work well over fields without hurting crop yields. Cornell University researchers also explored this approach with farmers worried about losing land. In Africa, solar-powered farming is changing lives by cutting costs and improving food production.
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Solar isn't just saving Jones money. It's helping farms stay profitable while keeping the air cleaner for everyone.
The NZGIF is optimistic about the future, saying, "Options available for farms to reduce emissions have been limited, but that is starting to change due to increasing farmer demand for sustainability solutions."
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