Agriculture Victoria Energy Webinar Series

Energy Storage Options – Webinar recording

Energy storage technologies provide the opportunity to capture excess energy generated on-farm to be utilised at a later time when there is energy demand.

Presenter Ellie Shirdel, Pitt & Sherry, spoke about energy storage options including batteries, thermal storage and kinetic systems. Ellie provided an overview of each technology and how these technologies may be utilised on-farm.

Fred Jonkers, a Gippsland dairy farmer, shared his experiences and the benefits of installing a solar and battery system for his farm.

Backup power options in agriculture – Webinar recording

Power outages can significantly impact agricultural businesses and the loss of power disrupts critical farm infrastructure.

During the webinar Agriculture Victoria’s Richard Smith gave an overview of the impacts of power outages on agricultural businesses. Liz Fletcher, Managing Director of Birdwood Energy, discussed alternative power options available and what to consider when selecting a system. Joel Vanderuit, General Manager at Tall Trees nursery, explained why he has implemented a battery and solar backup power system. The final speaker was Bruce Manintveld, a dairy farmer in Gippsland, who shared his story of the impacts a power outage had on his business and why having a generator for backup power is a high priority.

Irrigation Energy Efficiency – Webinar recording

Lifetime pumping costs can be more than five times the capital cost of a pumping system, so designing and maintaining an efficient irrigation system is vital to minimising costs. Irrigation assessments are one-way farmers can identify opportunities to save energy, costs and stress.

During the webinar Agriculture Victoria’s Nick O’Halloran shared:

• How to measure the energy efficiency of pumped irrigation systems.
• Common causes of poor energy efficiency.
• Tools available to identify improvement opportunities and quantify dollar savings.

Energy Efficiency in Horticulture – Webinar recording

In this webinar Agriculture Victoria hosted a panel discussion with three managers, Dasha Sherif (I.M Sweet Australia), Jason Shields (Plunkett Orchards) and Rowan Little (Montague Orchards) who shared their experiences in implementing sustainable energy technologies, improving energy efficiency and generating renewable energy.

Bioenergy – Webinar recording

Bioenergy is generated from organic materials such as manure, straw or other organic residues through processes including anaerobic digestion and combustion.

The webinar explored anaerobic digestion with Stephan Tait, Senior Process Engineer at Scolexia and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland. Following on Sohum Gandhi, Director of Enriva, walked us through a number of thermal bioenergy systems Enriva has designed and implemented on-farm.  Kelly Wickham, Industry Development Coordinator – Energy at Agriculture Victoria rounded out the webinar. Kelly provided an overview of the current bioenergy systems operating and under development in Victoria including on-farm applications.

Solar on-farm – Webinar recording

In this webinar recording, Geoff Lodge, CEO of GV Community Energy explores solar on-farm. During the webinar Geoff explained where solar is suitable on-farm, getting the most out of solar, understanding the process of connecting to the grid to export excess electricity generated and the maintenance requirements of solar.

Agriculture Energy Investment Plan – Grant opportunities for beef and sheep producers – Webinar recording