Bright Future for Solar

Projects to generate solar power on farms across the country have attracted strong interest from the rural sector - delivering cost efficiency, resilience and CO2 reduction.

Public angst generated by New Zealand’s energy crisis in recent months has put the national grid in the spotlight. A combination of factors, including diminishing gas supplies and low inflows into hydro lakes, saw a spike in wholesale prices during the peak winter months that was blamed for contributing to the closure of several businesses. Little wonder rural New Zealand is grabbing solar with both hands, wanting to be part of the renewable solution to the country’s long-term energy needs.

Carry on farming

“Solar on farm is a strong choice that improves your bottom line and is better for the environment,” says Andrew ‘Pegs’ Pegler, one of the founders of Blackcurrent, an energy company that installs microgrids. Though the company is a fairly new player, it’s already well established in the rural sector, working with 70 farms across the country in the past six months. A major driver for choosing solar is to ensure continuity of supply. Even a brief outage can cause huge disruption, says Pegs. “This particular farm’s worried about their electric fences – because if the power goes out, they lose power to the fence and the herd will move.

“Most people don’t think too much of that, but if that herd jumps into the next paddock, that’s next month’s feed is gone. Right? Just because the power is out for an hour.” Farmers can also improve land use efficiency, allowing innovative approaches like agrivoltaics, where crops thrive alongside solar panels. Ultimately, embracing solar energy empowers farmers to lead the way in sustainability, ensuring food production remains viable and responsible for future generations.

Three big reasons

Generally, there are three reasons a farmer would look at installing solar. First up is the financial benefit – an instant saving off your bill, and a revenue stream through preferential rates and exporting. “We’ve got a customer who’s just removed $68,000 from their yearly electricity bill,” says Pegs. “It’s almost 70% of the electricity bill in year one – because they pump water up a hill for nine months a year.” 

The second reason is resilience. “Whether it’s just disaster recovery or it just rained too much or there’s snow – in central Otago particularly – it’s about keeping the electric fences on. It’s about keeping the ability to milk, if it’s a dairy operation, because the cows don’t want to wait.” And then there’s sustainability. “There’s a real CO2 reduction in this for farmers – even compared to just taking power from the grid,” says Pegs. “Solar reduces your reliance on fossil fuels, contributing to a cleaner, more sustainable approach.”

Boxes to tick

Diversifying the country’s electricity production capacity means our supply is more resilient overall. If water in the hydro lakes runs low, solar generation can help pick up the slack during the day. Hydro resources are then more available to deploy during the morning and evening peaks. Solar technology has also improved significantly in recent years, with advancements in panel efficiency and manufacturing making it much more reliable and effective. Costs have dropped and continue to do so, with the price per megawatt decreasing by more than 10-20 percent over the past decade. “Batteries used to be $1000 a kilowatt hour. We can purchase them now for 700 bucks a kilowatt hour.

You think about that when you put a hundred kilowatts in – it’s $300 less on every kilowatt. It adds up really quickly,” says Pegs. “Solar panels are the same. Panels are relatively cheap, but the technology has improved,” he says. Even compared to five years ago, panels are returning more electricity with the same amount of sunshine – and they no longer have to be at the perfect angle. “Facing north used to be a big problem, whereas now panels can be hit from multiple angles and the losses are 1% instead of 10, 15, 20%.” 

On top this, lifespans are increasing. “For panels, we are knocking on 30 years now, and it used to be 20. Batteries used to be 10, and now we’re looking at 14,” says Pegs. “So in terms of return on investment and service and maintenance, everything’s improved but cheaper.” And you don’t have to live in sunny Nelson. “Solar will work for 95% of people in New Zealand from a geographic point of view.” Even Invercargill? “We’ve got three there,” says Pegs.

https://blackcurrent.io/flex-enquiry.html to find out more.