Irrigators: Solar pumps “on the threshold” of going huge

Based on that logic alone, support for solar-powered irrigation pumps in NSW is expected to soar this year, following 18 months of curiosity and a number of cost-cutting clean energy success stories. 

Farmers in the Central West and beyond interested how solar irrigation pumping can be used on their farm will be at an information day at Narromine on March 13, where industry speakers and early adopter will give the low-down on what has worked, and what opportunities await. 

Event co-ordinator Karin Stark of Macquarie 2100 said farmers interest in solar pumping forums was always strong. Another on-farm event at Narromine in 2016, where a 100kW system was on display, attracted a crowd of more than 100. 

Ms Stark said information on solar pumping systems, and ground-proofing by farmers who had already installed them, had only improved.

“It’s a good business case,” she said. “The cost of panels have gone down. Cotton Australia is behind it. The Almond board has also raised it as an issue. 

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“Really, it’s the next big wave of change in agriculture. It’s about environmental gains, and farmers becoming more resilient and not being reliant on diesel and petrol prices. Even if environmental reasons don’t come into it for individual farmers, they’re looking at what their neighbours are doing. Looking at their bottom line. Looking five years out.”

Ben Lee, co-owner of solar irrigation pump installers ReAqua, will also be speaking on the day. Over the past six months his company has installed three to four systems using more than a megalitre a day.

“The key barrier to date is every man and his dog can sell you a solar system,” Mr Lee said. “But putting it into a pumping and irrigation system is something different altogether. Powering a house or a shed is different to powering a pump.

“You also need to make sure that by changing to solar, there’s potential there that it could change your irrigation patterns, when and how you use water.”

“Systems that have not lived up to their promise… did so because the people selling them didn’t take the time to understand why a farmer needs water and how they use it.”

Solar Pumping for Irrigators will feature presentations by food and fibre industry representatives, as well as farmers who have installed systems, and those with systems about to go online. 

The second half of the day is dedicated to residential battery storage.

RSVPs must be made by March 6 to 0467 602 886 or kstark79@hotmail.com. 

IF Jon Elder’s new solar irrigation setup isn’t the biggest in the state – then it’ll certainly be close to it.

But he doesn’t think it will remain out on its own for long. 

“If it goes in and it gets working then I think you’ll see people getting on board and even bigger ones going in elsewhere,” he said.  

Mr Elder, who has 550 hectares of cotton 25km south-west Narromine, has installed a 500kW solar array to run a hybrid pump system.

For comparison, Mr Elder’s setup is five times the size of Andew Gill’s pioneering system down the road, which attracted a crowd of 110 farmers to an information day in 2016 and made headlines as solar irrigation arrived on the scene in NSW. 

He estimates his diesel costs will be cut by 40 per cent when the system is operating, paying for itself within five years – “or less if it’s a good season”. 

“A lot of us were waiting to see if (Mr Gill) could make it work,” Mr Elder said. 

Both he and Mr Gill, along with fellow solar irrigator Ian Corderoy, will be speaking about their setups, what has worked, and what hasn’t, during the information day in Narromine on Tuesday March 13.

Mr Elder said his irrigation had required 360,000 litres of diesel a season, pumping from three groundwater bores. He said for a 500kW system farmers could expect to part with up to $900,000. 

“But for our set up - the economics stack up,” he said. 

“The usual caveats apply. You have to make it right for your system. But I think we’re right on the threshold of this going huge.”