06 November 2023

Solar energy opportunities for dairy farms

As we all know, energy costs have increased dramatically since the war in Ukraine started and are unlikely to go back to pre-war levels. In this article, Patrick Gowing, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, offers some key advice for farmers considering installing solar on their farm.

Rising energy prices have increased the cost on dairy farms of electricity usage to a guide of €12.00 per 1,000 litres of milk sold or an average consumption of 25,000kWh/year per 100 cows (excludes domestic usage).

Before considering solar, farmers should maximise the potential to save energy usage on their farms by pricing around on energy suppliers, variable speed pumps, plate coolers etc., to reduce overall energy consumed on the farm.

That being said, solar PV is potentially a good investment on a lot of dairy farms. The solar PV system converts daylight into direct current electricity, which is then converted to AC by an invertor that is installed as part of the solar system.

The key component to a solar system on your farm is the size to install. If you size your system to sell back electricity to the grid, it is important the ESB infrastructure on your holding is checked prior to investing as this will determine the max you will be able to export.

Also the sizing of the PV system will also be determined by the maximum eligible under TAMS support, which is defined by the annual consumption and the generation capacity of the panels. Under TAMS 3 support, a farmer can avail of a 60% grant to a ceiling of €90,000. This is a separate ceiling for solar and won’t affect other aspects of TAMS.

When the grant is included, farmers can have very short payback of about three years at current electricity prices. This may be a good investment for many but should be carefully planned and sized.

Table 1: Effect of SCIS on payback (100-cow farm)

Also read: Everything you need to know about installing solar panels on your farm

Also read: Maximising potential from renewables