EECA funding helps winegrowers adopt solar and battery systems
Winegrowers interested in exploring solar and battery systems on their vineyards could tap into funding and advice through a new funding programme.
Unlike other solar or battery hosting, lease or subscription models that are now beginning to populate New Zealand rooftops, the company aims to match customers with suitable sized solar generation, or that can have additional renewable energy systems added to make the most of any additional power, such as biogas and hydrogen.
Ideal For Farmers
Founder and CEO Thomas Wiseman believed the concept was ideal for New Zealand regions, and particularly the farming community who juggle energy resiliency, affordability and options to electrify or decarbonise their operations on farm.
"By partnering with farmers, we can take some of their challenges with lines companies, weather events, rising diesel prices off their plate and add another asset to their property," Wiseman says.
"Farms with energy storage systems are probably the best kept secret in how we can actually make the NZ energy grid work effectively and keep the lights on,” he adds.
Lessons Learned In The Energy Industry
With lessons learned from a career starting as a meter reader and working through multiple trade qualifications on oil and gas sites across before becoming a director of Taranaki industrial trades company TIS in 2019, Wiseman was motivated to build a business that would enable a gear shift for his own team needing to diversify from the shrinking oil and gas sector as well as create meaningful opportunities for local investment and skill development.
“We wanted a way to accelerate solar installations that made a real impact to the communities they’re based in, and by building a vertically integrated entity where our tradies, our energy customers and our local investors can all participate means we all get the benefits from not only cheaper renewable power but equity in the electricity market itself," he says.
With a flagship solar site now live in New Plymouth’s industrial area powering multiple properties, BlueGreen Frontiers is now taking expressions of interest for commercial and rural solar farm host sites, commercial and residential energy customers, and for their upcoming capital raise for potential investors.
