Australian cotton farming giant Cubbie is seeking to meet the majority of its energy needs with renewables, starting with the construction of a 3.6MW solar farm near Dirranbandi, in Queensland.
US Nasdaq listed company VivoPower said on Monday that its wholly owned Australia subsidiary, Aevitas, had been chosen to build the solar project at Cubbie Station – the largest irrigated cotton farm in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Cubbie Solar Farm will be owned by a subsidiary of Cubbie, and will generate enough electricity to supply 40 per cent of the Station’s energy needs during the peak cotton ginning season, running from April to September.
But that is just the beginning of the company’s renewable energy plans. The cotton grower’s longer term goal is to expand the solar farm to 7.2MW and add battery storage.
And on its website, Cubbie says its ultimate goal is to provide power to the nearby towns of Dirranbandi and St George in south-west Queensland.
As we wrote here almost two years ago, the potential for solar to power energy intensive farming applications like irrigation around the country is huge – and the need, even greater.
“I see hundreds of irrigation pumps out there, connected to filthy diesel,” said Queensland-based solar installer Matthew Beech at the time.
“We firmly believe that the only reasons there hasn’t been more uptake (of solar) … is that it hasn’t been sold very well to the end user.”
But the transition is happening. In 2105, a cotton farmer in Moree, NSW, added a 70kW ground-mounted solar array with back-up battery storage to its diesel engine direct drive pump, with the aim of cutting its diesel consumption by 60 per cent.
And just this week, a trial led by business energy retailer Flow Power, with the UTS’ Institute of Sustainable Futures, showed how much a Victorian almond grower could save on energy costs using not just renewables, but demand management technology.
At Cubbie Station, the 80,000 hectare property uses 19,000 for irrigated farming with cotton going to the onsite Ginnery (pictured above), which was upgraded in 2017.
Cubbie also plants cover crops of wheat and chickpeas, when the opportunity arises.
“This important contract is further confirmation of the strong growth outlook for Aevitas from solar and other tailwind drivers in Australia,” said VivoPower CEO Carl Weatherley-White.
“Technical advances continue to drive the competitiveness of solar power generation and battery storage, and we have seen increased interest from our customers for similar solutions,” said Phil Lowbridge, from Aevitas.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
This post was published on August 10, 2018 12:21 pm
Participants in the Victorian Energy Upgrades scheme are now banned from unsolicited telemarketing, and face…
For a typically slow month, April 2024 has neared record levels of new rooftop solar…
AGL Energy completes installation of a huge stand-alone solar and battery microgrid that will power…
Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer says its retail network has more than doubled over the…
Solar for Apartments Program offers up to $100,000 to eligible bodies corporate, 50% as a…
State government-backed rebate designed to install bulk residential rooftop PV and electric hot water has…
View Comments
Cubbie Station, the water thieves, now trying to charm us with their solar story.
I don;t they even care about trying to "charm" us, this is about Cubbie saving money.
Cubbie Station have saved plenty of money from all their water stealing activity, Why haven't they been put behind bars yet.
I thought Cubbie had bought up water licences from willing sellers and then maxed production by buying the best agronomists and land management practices available? They grow more product per unit of water than anyone else as far as i know.
Well they didn't have to steal the water, because originally it was the Bjelke-Petersen Govt which gave them the water licence in the first place. So we can thank Joh and his National Party for their contribution to destroying the Darling River Basin. It set off a race for further stripping out of water from tributaries which should never have been granted by future QLD and NSW govts. Now we have the present calamitous state of the Murray Darling Basin and the ripping out of more water to big cotton farmers in NSW and leaving the graziers high and very dry.
And the LNP continue their destruction. I have just sent an e-mail to David Littleproud & members of the Senate, South Australia Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling River is expected to end their inquiry, without hearing from Federal Officials Responsible for the plan. The Royal Commission needs Key Documents that have not been forthcoming. As usual a LNP Government doing nothing.
The great water thieves, growing the most unsuitable crop for this country, but reducing their costs to pump their iSll gotten water.
They would do far better to switch to hemp as their major crop.
A better fibre, with much lower water need, less susceptible to pest damage, and more tolerant of a little weed competition.
Did you know that originally, the banning of hemp was to protect the Manchester cotton milling industry? Nothing to do with the evils of mind altering drugs. After all, the British encouraged Chinese use of opium, to aid in sizing control of their trade wealth. All part of the wonders and benefits of British colonial rule, and the industrial revolution that ultimately brought us the anthropogenic, accelerated, amazing, toxic greenhouse that is global warming.
A huge achievement for such a tiny country as England.
???? ???? ????
Excellent comment, about a destructive cotton farm.
And I didn't mention the carcinogenic effects of glyphosate, that they use so lavishly.
Gannon hinny, we might as well take the blame for this, we get blamed for everything else-;)
Well Cubbie station goes green with solar power to save power expense for their hip pocket. But have absolutely no concern for stealing life saving water. Yes I agree with Hettie cotton an unsustainable crop to grow in Australia & hemp is not a greedy water wasting crop.
You want to save water with minimum cost? Stop growing rice in the Murrary-Darling.
And blame the politicians (Joe Bjelke-Peterson and his mob) for issuing more water licences to win elections until there were way more water licences issued than water in the river.
And then rip into the current LNP-Labor governments at all levels who won't reduce the water licences.
For water efficiency, big capitalisation is needed. Cubby has it in their deeper-than-normal ring tanks (therefore less evaporation than their neighbours) and the tomatoes-under-glass growers in Port Augusta, Glen Innes and Victoria have per-hectare and per-megalitre productivity that mum and dad farming operations can't imagine.
I have been fighting the for the Murray -Darling for some time & had a recent visit to Southern NSW & Victoria & was shown where the river should be & the miniscule amount in the river & the States are in an extreme drought. And I aslo have very little faith in politicians. Adani has been given unlimited water supply for their Coal Mine. And I sign every petition for farmers fighting against climate change. The future is extremely concerning for our future generations. Am pretty sure the LNP & Labor Government knows who I am. We are an extremely dry continent & it will only get worse. We all need to be smarter, and really don't think we can rely on government Barnaby Joyce for example.