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The Crutchley family has been turning sunlight into food and fibre on their Maniototo farm since 1939. Now, Emma Crutchley and Kyle Hagen are turning sunlight into energy.
Their solar setup helps to irrigate over 200 hectares on their sheep and beef farm and also runs the farm sheds, workshop and farmhouse. Any excess is stored in batteries or sent back out to the grid.
While there are significant upfront costs attached, Becks Smith, co-founder of Solayer, which installed the system, says farmers can expect to pay it back in around five years primarily through the savings on electricity bills.
Smith says farmers often have to compromise to reduce their costs (for example, a reduction in fertiliser use may affect production), but solar is a way for farmers to reduce costs without having to compromise on anything and, as Rewiring Aotearoa’s research showed, it is popular across all farm types and age groups, with 70% of respondents to a survey last year saying they were interested.
Solar can also be a gateway drug to electrification. Anecdotally, homeowners with solar tend to be more interested in electric vehicles when they realise they have an energy source on their roof that they should be making the most of, and farmers with solar are more likely to look at the machines they’re using - from tractors to mowers to frost fighting fans - and try to figure out how to electrify them because it makes economic sense over the long-run.
Batteries on farms (and in homes) are less of an economic slam dunk than solar at the moment, but Smith says they are still seeing impressive payback periods and those are likely to improve as prices continue to drop and higher rates for peak exports become more common.
As New Zealand’s economy electrifies, we will need more renewable generation and farms could play a much bigger role in the energy system. If 50,000 farms installed a mid-sized solar system, that could generate 60% more electricity - and more big battery set ups can help power other homes in the area without the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades.
Just as Forest Lodge Orchard has provided a powerful demonstration project, Crutchley and Smith are showing how well it stacks up for other types of farms and inspiring others to follow suit.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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