P.PIP.0745 | Hardwicks Microgrid Project

Summary

The purpose of this project is to combine renewable energy generation with sheep grazing as a demonstration of dual land use. It is unique in that it utilises the renewable energy produced on agricultural land to process sheep grazed on that land, in a vertically integrated value chain.

As well as demonstrating microgrid technology in the red meat industry, the project offers the opportunity to study grazing and pasture management in conjunction with a ‘greenfield’ solar installation.

Objectives

• Demonstrate an industrial microgrid as a means to enable off-grid red meat processing, including system integration with the mains electricity grid.
• Design a microgrid that will enable grazing of sheep under the solar panels.
• Establish an electricity tariff optimisation procedure to allow red meat processing facilities to request a demand reset from electricity suppliers.
• Develop a grazing management plan for grazing of sheep under the solar array.
• Consider future additions to the microgrid following the installation of the project.
• Present innovative project funding options to drive adoption of microgrids within the Australian red meat industry.

Key findings

The completion of the Hardwicks Microgrid has expected financial returns at $508,746 per annum as well as reducing carbon by approx. 1,300,000kgs per annum.

There was a reduction in pasture growth in the areas where the solar panels had been constructed and the changes in quality measurements indicate that livestock production would be better under the solar panels as a result of pasture being higher in crude protein and containing higher levels of metabolisable energy.

The results suggest that you would need to run less animals under the solar panels compared to not having solar panels and they would continue to put weight on for longer and better weight gains later in the season.

From this trial alone it is hard to establish which would be a more profitable scenario as stocking rate is an important factor in farm profitability. However, the ability to extend the growing season as a trade-off for less production during the spring which was seen in this trial is probably quite favourable as the spring is typically a time of abundance of feed and underutilisation of feed.

Benefits to industry

As well as demonstrating microgrid technology in the red meat industry, the project offers the opportunity to others within the same industry to study grazing and pasture management in conjunction with a renewable energy project. This project aims to illustrate to others how project funding can be sourced and what research components can go into such a project to benefit the industry.

Hardwicks also held field days throughout the entirety of the project to provide industry stakeholders with the opportunity to inspect the installation of the Microgrid and to showcase the positive impacts Hardwicks is making within the red meat industry.

Future research

The Heat Pump and Power Upgrade Projects should be completed by end of 2022. In 2023, the business needs to work out which projects can be executed to fully achieve Carbon Neutral status for the Kyneton site.

Current concept plans for future projects include additional solar PV, wood chip boiler and/or biogas generation.