Energy audits are an excellent way of measuring farm energy use and potentially saving money on electricity bills. Audits are expensive, in the order of $10,000 for a detailed level 2 audit of a large-scale vegetable farm, but savings can be considerable, and the pay-back period is commonly about 1-2 years. In addition, there is [...]
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There are a number of electrical power generation technologies which are suitable for use on farm. These options can be compared using the ‘levelled cost of energy’ (LCOE). This is the average price of electricity generated over the plant life taking into account all costs and maintenance required. As it takes into account all costs [...]
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There are a number of ways of reducing energy requirements of cool stores. Perhaps the most important is regularly checking the operating temperature of the room and considering whether this is the most cost-effective temperature for storage. For example, although the optimum storage temperature for many (non-chilling sensitive) products is close to zero, if they [...]
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