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Solagri plans to construct solar arrays and batteries on Kiwi dairy farms.
A start-up solar energy business says recent developments in the energy sector make it a sound investment.
Solagri managing director Peter Saundes says record wholesale energy prices, recent power outages in the North Island and the United Nations declaring "code red for humanity" on climate change make it timely to invest in electricity generation and storage.
Saunders says Solagri had a successful first week on PledgeMe as it raises funds to contruct solar arrays and batteries on Kiwi dairy farms.
"Dairy prices have come off a little, but they are still 24% higher than at the same time last year.
"Building big solar arrays beside dairy sheds to help protect them from future electricity shortages makes sense.
"It also makes sense to deploy large batteries into those farms to support the dairy operation in the summer months and to support the grid in the winter months by shifting energy from the daytime to the overnight demand peaks.
"It's very hard to think of a better time to bring a new electricity generation and storage system to the New Zealand market," says Saunders.
"We have overall steadily increasing demand, pressure to move vehicles from oil to EV, pressure to move our large industrial heat users like milk dryers off coal, pressure to reduce our use of old coal generators, low lake levels and no new hydro capacity on the drawing board."
Saunders points out that recently New Zealand set a new record wholesale energy price.
"The price Kiwis pay for their electricity includes the wholesale energy price in their region and the retailers mark-up," he says.
On August 16, cold temperatures collided with a few other variables like low wind to produce a spot price that exceeded $11,000/megawatt/hour (MWh).
"It was only for one hour, but to put that in context, the wholesale price of electricity is normally around $115 per MWh at present. The wholesale energy price in New Zealand been regularly spiking over $600 MWh recently.
"If that price had been passed through to consumers, it would have cost you around $4.35 to boil a kettle."
He says because of energy supply and demand issues, Transpower stopped supply to customers for a few hours.
Saunders says while the events that coincided to cause this are rare, several industry experts came out to warn Kiwis that these supply outages are more likely into the future.
"Basically, our demand continues to grow and we have been too slow to build significant new generation capacity to keep up with this growth."
Adding solar power generation to the rural economy is picking up pace, with one of the country's leading solar generation companies announcing plans for another 150 GWh (gigawatt-hours) per year at three Canterbury sites.
A Waipara farmer planning to have 200ha of his property converted to an “Agri-voltaic” solar power plant says it represents a secure, 30-year diverse income stream for his business.
Canterbury-based solar panel provider Solagri Energy recently received a $10m boost from investment bank New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF).
A Canterbury vegetable growing company already well-recognised for its environmental initiatives has gone a big step further with a large solar power installation to power its packing and storage facilities.
A Woodville, Tararua dairy farmer is halving his dairy shed power bill with a solar power system he will pay for in six years. And it has no batteries. Peter Burke reports.
The country’s 4200 commercial fruit and vegetable growers will vote from May 14 on a new HortNZ levy.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.
