Solar and batteries for farms: irrigation, dairies and sheds

We install across farming country — Torrumbarry, Gunbower, Cohuna, Kerang, Lockington, Bamawm, Koyuga, Nanneella, and out through the Riverina. Farm jobs are a different proposition from a suburban roof, and in most respects a better one.

Why farms suit solar better than houses

The single biggest factor in whether solar pays is how much of your generation you use yourself rather than exporting for a small feed-in credit. Most households have a problem here: everyone's out during the day, so the panels produce into an empty house.

Farms have the opposite profile. Irrigation pumps, bore pumps, vat cooling, cool rooms, workshop tools, augers and grain handling all draw hard in daylight, which is exactly when the array is producing. A high daytime load is what makes a system pay for itself quickly, and most farms have one without having to change a thing about how they operate.

Shed roofs are usually the best asset on the property

A machinery or hay shed is often a better mounting surface than the house: large, unshaded, structurally simple, and typically oriented in a usable direction. It also means the array sits close to where the load actually is, which keeps cable runs short.

We'll assess the shed's purlin spacing and sheet condition as part of the site visit — not every old shed is a candidate, and we'd rather tell you that before you're committed than after.

Three phase, and what it changes

Most farm properties are three phase, and that opens up the GoodWe ETA range: true three-phase backup capability and up to 15kW continuous output. That's the difference between a system that runs the house and one that can genuinely carry pumps and workshop loads.

If you're single phase with a big pump, that's worth a conversation before anything else — it often shapes the whole design.

Irrigation and dairy: two different shapes

• Irrigation is the cleanest case for solar. Pumping is a heavy, sustained, daytime load, and every kilowatt-hour you self-consume is one you're not buying. Pumps are also often the load that justifies a larger array than the house alone would.
• Dairy is more interesting, because milking is twice a day and one of those is in the dark. Vat cooling and plant washdown after the evening milking are genuinely expensive hours to be buying power in. That's the case where storage earns its keep on a farm rather than just backup.

Outages hit harder out here

Rural lines are longer and more exposed, so outages are both more frequent and longer. On a farm that isn't just an inconvenience: it's a vat that needs cooling, stock water that needs pumping, and in some cases a shed full of equipment that doesn't like a hard stop. Does your solar work in a blackout covers why panels alone won't help you here — it's a battery with backup configured, or a generator.

What's available on the incentives side

• The federal battery rebate applies to businesses and primary producers, not just households — see the federal battery rebate explained.
• NSW commercial batteries can generate Peak Reduction Certificates under the BESS4 and BESS5 activities, which is real money off a farm-scale battery rather than a loan. We've written that up in NSW commercial battery rebate: BESS4 and BESS5 explained.
• Solar attracts the federal STC rebate the same way a house does, scaled to system size.

How we quote farm work

We don't put farm systems in a price table, and we're suspicious of anyone who does. Array size depends on your actual load profile, your shed, your phase supply and your network connection limits — a dairy and a cropping property with a single bore pump are not the same job even if the power bills look similar.

What we do is come out, look at the sheds, look at twelve months of bills, and design to that. Call Brooke on 0408 258 298, or start with the Quote Builder and add a note about the property — we'll pick it up from there.