MEDIA RELEASE – 16 June 2025
With droughts, floods and other extreme weather impacting farm profitability across the country, cutting input costs becomes even more critical to building a resilient future for Australian agriculture. On-farm renewable energy is proving to be a powerful tool to help farmers get there.
Gippsland dairy farmer Sandra Jefford, is working on a controlled microgrid, using solar for irrigation for her property. She can monitor how much solar is powering her operations and how much is exported to the grid.
"We save significantly on power costs depending on the season. We've added more irrigation over the years which has increased our power needs, so we will be adding more solar to one of those sites in the coming months, and potentially more in the future. It just makes business sense to do so."
Another farmer, Mike Casey in New Zealand, has been electrifying his farm over the last few years and has the first electric Monarch Tractor in the southern hemisphere. He has recently installed batteries on his farm and converted a ute to electric.
"We have a six hectare cherry orchard in Central Otago with 21 electric machines that saves about $40,000 a year in energy bills which is a huge amount of inputs.
"The cost of solar and batteries are at such a good price now, that rolling those out will really reduce our costs of operations on farms as well as the cost of living in general.
"My batteries will actually earn an income for the farm over the year," Mike explains. "I'm on a wholesale electricity contract now, so I can use my large batteries for protection against exposure to the open power market, and that means I can turn what has always been considered a risk, into an opportunity for farming."
Sandra and Mike are two of the speakers at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference 2025, taking place in Bendigo, Victoria, on July 23. The conference, happening in Victoria for the first time in six years, will bring together farmers, energy experts, researchers, industry leaders and government representatives to explore the practicalities, opportunities and challenges of renewable energy in agriculture.
Conference Founder and farmer Karin Stark says momentum is building across the sector.
"Farmers are increasingly turning to renewables to tackle the challenge of rising diesel and electricity prices. But there's still work to be done in making the right technologies available and ensuring regional contractors and services are equipped to deliver."
She adds that the conference will also explore agriculture's growing role in decarbonising the electricity grid.
"We'll be discussing the evolving distribution network and microgrids, and the potential for smaller, distributed solar projects on farms—say 5MW systems—feeding directly into the local network.
"There are also emerging opportunities for farmers to be paid for providing energy services as new markets develop," Stark said.
With consumers demanding lower-carbon products and farmers facing rising energy costs, the integration of solar, bioenergy, and electric machinery is no longer a vision of the future—it's happening now.
