UP to 100 energy audits will be carried out on a range of agricultural businesses as part of the new Energy Savers Plus Program.
The $2.69 million program was announced at the same time as a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between key stakeholders within the new Agricultural Energy Council in Bundaberg last week.
Energy minister Mark McArdle said the new Energy Savers Plus Program will involve up to 100 energy audits conducted on a diverse range of Queensland agricultural businesses from cane and cotton farms to dairies, production nurseries, prawn farms and horticultural businesses.
The audits will look at each farm’s energy use and efficiency, particularly regarding high energy use infrastructure such as pumps, irrigation equipment, controlled environments and other farm infrastructure across a broad cross-section of commodities.
“It expands on a successful existing project that has shown there can be significant savings on electricity costs by adopting better technology and improved management practices,” Mr McArdle said.
That “existing program” is the Irrigators Energy Savers Project announced earlier this year which saw energy audits conducted on 30 farms throughout Queensland.
The results from this program, a joint initiative between Ergon Energy, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (QDAFF) with support from the Queensland Farmers
Federation (QFF), were pledged to be released by the end of 2014.
Mr McArdle said the results from the new program would also be shared with all farmers and irrigators across the state however he did not give a timeframe.
QFF CEO Dan Galligan said that the two announcements – the audit program and the formation of the Agricultural Energy Council - would complement each other.
“The dual approach will ensure that we are working on both making our farms more efficient and as modern as possible, while also working on the underlying issue of escalating costs driven by pricing and policy issues,” Mr Galligan said.
“This is where the Agricultural Energy Council will need to deliver results, not by containing the issues but instead uncovering every aspect of electricity pricing that can be collaboratively influenced in such a way as to drive down costs.”
