Chris Kennedy of CK Energy talks about the growing use of solar power in the agriculture industry.

With the big electricity hike of 2022/23 in the rearview mirror which seen some poor souls paying 15 times as much as they did in 2021. Customers are now seeing a somewhat more “manageable” cost of electricity, which means the government succeeded in brainwashing us into thinking paying triple as much in electricity is actually acceptable.

The majority of customers out there reacted as quickly as possible to combat the risen costs by fitting solar PV however some have tried to ride it out with a detriment to their cash flow and were nowhere near helped with the rise in the costs from other areas like animal feeding, fuel and minerals.

For those who chose to invest in future-proofing their electricity cost, we don’t see any complaints. We do see however export prices are somewhat non-reflective of the cost to buy it for those who can export their excess solar PV power and we urge people not to jump and sign up for another year with anyone without doing their homework and looking at what others are offering. There are deals to be had, be patient and look for them as in some instances you may even get a better price than last year for both import and export.

For customers wanting to use their solar PV better, we would be happy to spend time and show them how, as with our customer base we see huge cost savings from one dairy farmer to another simply by the way choses they do it. Ice banks may be seemingly old hat however setting them up to be built ice during daylight hours rather than at off-peak times can save up to 60% of overall costs and capture a higher percentage of solar PV before it is exported.

The biggest question we get asked is batteries will they work for me? Are they worth it? The answer to all these questions prior to now was NO. The costs of these systems were horrifically expensive, whether that was because there was a boom in sales or it was simply because the raw materials to produce them were difficult to get we are unsure.

The biggest thing in our eyes was having a supplier available in the UK to give support and good technical know-how as there were also so many to choose from. This side of the industry has been working away hard in the background and we are happy to say we feel it's ready to deploy and people should always consider battery storage as an option.

Costs have almost halved, and control systems are good for both user and technical support. But again don’t buy a system and simply do what you're doing, have a look at your site what can you do differently to utilise these systems. Off-peak rates are a must if you can if you bought a Lamborghini and someone said you can have cheap fuel but you can only fill up at night I am confident you would see a queue of Aventador’s outside BP’s filling stations at 1 o’clock in the morning, your battery is the same, if you have not produced enough PV power during the day because it’s the winter time or it's just the most

battery systems can be timed to charge during off-peak. If you don’t have a cheap nighttime rate then in reality you are only going to use around 70% of your battery capabilities.

The next biggest question we get asked is “Will we get a grid connection?" The answer is unless you simply want to export all the power from the solar PV then a grid connection is not a necessity it's just the cherry on top! At CK Energy we navigate grid connections every hour of every day for customers and see them through to fruition. With years of experience and site data, we can see multiple sites with no capacity to export still flourishing to capture at least 60% of what their solar PV produces, and we are currently retrospectively fitting battery storage to capture the rest and utilise on-site multiple sites.

In conclusion our opinion is most important key to having these systems is not to be too small you won’t see the benefit or a decent enough reduction in electricity costs.

Always consider battery and if not certainly keep it in mind for the future when doing your initial setup. Don’t get too hung up on whether you can export or not. Lastly, consider a reputable supplier/installer!