Swan Marsh dairy farmers Peter and Trish Mulheron no longer have to worry about relying on an old back-up diesel generator if the power goes out.
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Their south-west Victorian farm is one of the first in Australia to have a transportable renewable power system installed and they expect it will end their annual $25,000 power bill.
While many farms have solar panels on top of the dairy, the new PHNXX microgrid system can be rolled out of its shipping container and moved to wherever it’s needed.
Peter and Trish have set aside a parcel of unused land next to the dairy and the innovative system is now ready to go following a decade of trials. The microgrid system has 105-kilowatt output and a 241-kilowatt-hour battery.
The system comes inside a shipping container and is put together and rolled out on rails. It takes about seven hours to set up and about four hours to disassemble.
The microgrid system has 105-kilowatt output and a 241-kilowatt-hour battery.
Peter and Trish had investigated a traditional solar system but decided against it.
“Because of our power usage – we use a lot in the evenings and early mornings – we weren’t going to get full benefits from the panels so a battery made sense to us,” he said.
Their connection with PHNXX came about by chance when their son Matthew got an internship with the company while studying electrical engineering at University of Melbourne.
PHNXX was looking for a site for testing and set up a pilot program, running a spotlight using solar panels, wind power and battery.
They graduated to a 40-kilowatt solar and battery version and after deciding wind wasn’t a suitable option.
After tests on other farms and a winery, the full scale 105-kilowatt module has been installed.
“Our hope is that we’ll totally cut out our power bill,” Peter said.
“In the winter there will be less sunlight and we might have a shortfall and use a bit of grid power, but we’ll have excess in summer and sell that back into the grid.
“We’re hoping that over the year they will cancel each other out and be cost-neutral.”
A grant from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has helped to cut the originally anticipated seven-year payback time.
“I had my doubts at the initial pilot stage that anything would be capable of covering the whole amount because a dairy uses a lot of energy, but through the testing, I’m quite comfortable that once it’s fully functional it will do what we’re hoping for,” Peter said.
They were keen on the portable system to not only cut power costs but to contribute to a sustainable industry and avoid reliability issues.
“Reliability of power is becoming an issue,” he said.
“We’ve been lucky in western Victoria in that we haven’t suffered the disasters they’ve had in Gippsland and northern Victoria where they have been without power for up to weeks.
“Our breakdowns are usually three-to-six hours so you can get away with one milking on a generator, but a generator is not as stable, it tends to fluctuate.
“As we get more technology in the dairy, there’s some voltage sensitive equipment that doesn’t take too kindly to the generator fluctuating.”
The system comes inside a shipping container and is put together and rolled out on rails. It takes about seven hours to set up and about four hours to disassemble.
Finding a spot wasn’t a problem and Peter and Trish plan to leave it permanently beside their 24-a-side herringbone dairy.
A fourth-generation farmer, Peter’s great grandfather started on the land in 1906 and the property has expanded over the generations.
Peter and Trish and their son James run the farm with support from a couple of occasional milkers. They peak at 240 Holsteins.
While he has no immediate plans to retire, Peter is in his 60s and thinking of the future.
“If we decide to give up milking and don’t require the power, it’s a saleable item, just like a tractor,” he said.
“A lot of dairies ceased operation with big solar systems stuck on the roof. It’s not cost effective to dismantle it so it sits there going to waste.
“This can be packed up and moved somewhere or if our son took over the farm and decided to build a new dairy in a different place, it could be taken there.”
A recent demonstration day created a lot of interest.
“A lot of farms have diesel generators that are used when there’s an outage or a shortage of power, and with the way diesel is going we expected a lot of interest,” Peter said.
PHNXX co-founder Wei-Chi Lee said the modular solar-battery microgrid was built for remote and off-grid operations and stemmed from projects in mining, oil and gas that previously relied on diesel generators.
“We estimate across the year the average coverage from our system will be well over 90 per cent and farmers like Peter will get benefits from feeding in excess during the summer months that cover the shortfall during winter.”
Mr Lee said the microgrid would provide reliability against blackouts and brownouts and “farmers will know exactly what they’re paying for power, not be at the whims of fluctuating power prices”.
The surge in diesel prices has led to more interest in the portable solar systems.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of customers in the past few weeks who are really feeling the price hike of diesel,” Mr Lee said.
“This essentially protects them against that. The majority of farmers are on a financed plan where we can match monthly repayments to their current power bills, so effectively zero out-of-pocket costs for them.”
The system can be adjusted or expanded to suit a farmer’s needs. It uses bifacial collar panels which are open at the back, helping with ventilation and capturing additional irradiation.
“They are easier to maintain and more efficient than roof-mounted systems,” Mr Lee said. “When it’s on the ground, it’s typically open at the back but on the roof the solar panels capture heat. Ironically solar panels don’t operate so well if they get too hot.”