Powering a 200-cow dairy herd with TAMs Solar PV is Tipperary farmer, Ted O’Sullivan.
With a two to three year payback, turning his farm sheds into a source of power was a no brainer for the Bansha dairy farmer.
In recent years, the electricity bill had become a major cost on the farm. Ted decided to contact local supplier John Lowry of Home & Agri energy.
Home & Agri Energy
John has a Bachelors degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering and earned his experience as an energy engineer in Ireland before heading to Australia to gain valuable knowledge on the solar industry.
He worked as a Solar consultant in both Melbourne and Sydney. In 2019, after three years working in Australia, he decided to return home to bring Solar PV to Irish homes and farms.
John believes we have only scratched the surface here in Ireland with what we can achieve with Solar PV.
Home & Agri Energy started with the goal of providing high quality solar energy systems and expertise to homes and farms around Ireland.
Unlike most solar providers, Home & Agri energy was born from a genuine passion for renewable energy. This love for the technology has helped them to deliver enormous value to home and farms around Ireland.
A solar panel system reduces your impact on the environment by generating renewable, sustainable and clean energy from the sun.
As the world moves further and further away from fossil fuels, the benefits of solar energy will grow over time.
TAMS Solar PV grant
Last year, with the help of Home & Agri energy, Ted applied for the TAMS Solar PV grant and finally got approval in April of this year.
“Home & Agri supplied us with 87 solar panels which give us 40 KW of power,” he said.
The system was installed by Home & Agri energy in May and is now into its sixth week of operation. According to Ted, electricity savings have been as much as 92%.
“What was a major cost every month in excess of €1,200 or €1,400 for the peak times was reduced to €90 last month,” he said.
Together with the TAMS grant, Ted reckons the payback will be within two to three years, so in his opinion, it is completely worth it: “It’s a no brainer really.”
40KW Solar PV System
“We installed a 40KW Solar PV system on two sheds. One facing south-east which we optimised for the morning milking. We put the remaining panels on the west facing shed for the evening milking.
“They are milking 200 cows here in Bansha so they are using a lot of electricity. About 120 units per day is what they are consuming,” John said.
He explained that the solar system has been installed for the last six weeks and that on average it is doing about 160 units per day:
“We oversized the system to allow for that. We are seeing savings here of 92%, with excess of 1400 units sold at €0.21 which, equates to €294 sold to the grid.
“The overall cost of the Solar PV system on this farm is about €65,000 so that we are looking at a payback of two to three years, which is phenomenal.”
The battery storage is essential for a dairy farmer that milks morning and evening. This system fully covers the evening milk and also half of the morning milking. On optimal sunshine days the energy requirement is met at 100%.
“Once we installed the system, it has been powering the farm ever since.” John added.
If you are interested in finding out more on Home & Agri energy’s solar solutions, and how you can power your farm with solar, call 062 67139.
