Farmers leading the charge: Renewables driving down costs and pollution in agriculture
National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo
MEDIA RELEASE – 16 June 2025
With droughts, floods and other extreme weather impacting farm profitability across the country, cutting input costs becomes even more critical to building a resilient future for Australian agriculture. On-farm renewable energy is proving to be a powerful tool to help farmers get there.
Gippsland dairy farmer Sandra Jefford, is working on a controlled microgrid, using solar for irrigation for her property. She can monitor how much solar is powering her operations and how much is exported to the grid.
“We save significantly on power costs depending on the season. We’ve added more irrigation over the years which has increased our power needs, so we will be adding more solar to one of those sites in the coming months, and potentially more in the future. It just makes business sense to do so."
Another farmer, Mike Casey in New Zealand, has been electrifying his farm over the last few years and has the first electric Monarch Tractor in the southern hemisphere. He has recently installed batteries on his farm and converted a ute to electric.
“We have a six hectare cherry orchard in Central Otago with 21 electric machines that saves about $40,000 a year in energy bills which is a huge amount of inputs.
“The cost of solar and batteries are at such a good price now, that rolling those out will really reduce our costs of operations on farms as well as the cost of living in general.
“My batteries will actually earn an income for the farm over the year,” Mike explains. “I’m on a wholesale electricity contract now, so I can use my large batteries for protection against exposure to the open power market, and that means I can turn what has always been considered a risk, into an opportunity for farming.”
Sandra and Mike are two of the speakers at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference 2025, taking place in Bendigo, Victoria, on July 23. The conference, happening in Victoria for the first time in six years, will bring together farmers, energy experts, researchers, industry leaders and government representatives to explore the practicalities, opportunities and challenges of renewable energy in agriculture.
Conference Founder and farmer Karin Stark says momentum is building across the sector.
“Farmers are increasingly turning to renewables to tackle the challenge of rising diesel and electricity prices. But there’s still work to be done in making the right technologies available and ensuring regional contractors and services are equipped to deliver.”
She adds that the conference will also explore agriculture’s growing role in decarbonising the electricity grid.
“We’ll be discussing the evolving distribution network and microgrids, and the potential for smaller, distributed solar projects on farms—say 5MW systems—feeding directly into the local network.
“There are also emerging opportunities for farmers to be paid for providing energy services as new markets develop,” Stark said.
With consumers demanding lower-carbon products and farmers facing rising energy costs, the integration of solar, bioenergy, and electric machinery is no longer a vision of the future—it’s happening now.
ENDS
Media Contact
For interviews with Sandra Jefford, Mike Casey and Karin Stark contact Karin:
Telephone: 04676 02 886
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.renewablesinagconference.com.au
Notes for Editors
Keynote speaker at this year’s National Renewables in Agriculture Conference is Grattan Institute’s Director of Energy and Climate Change Program Tony Wood, one of the country’s well-known and influential thinkers in renewables and climate change policy.
Sessions will feature a range of topics including electric utes, battery storage, bioenergy, solar pumping, future grid, agrivoltaics, and sharing the benefits when hosting large scale solar and wind farms.
There will also be opportunities to ask questions at the Q&A and networking sessions, before mingling with speakers during a solar wine and light canape event at the end of the day.
The National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo started in 2019 and was developed due to a need to provide credible, independent advice to farmers about how they could replace diesel and fossil fuel-powered electricity on their farms with renewables.
The conference has evolved to increase knowledge about the opportunities for farmers in the national energy transition, what benefits regional communities can advocate for and how long term, positive change will be achieved.
Karin Stark, Conference Founder, lives on a farm in the Central West NSW, is Director of her business Farm Renewables Consulting, a member of the NSW Farmers ‘Energy Transition Taskforce’, Board member for RE-Alliance and is an advocate for agrivoltaics; the co-location of solar and farming. She was invited to participate in the Sydney Powerhouse ‘100 Climate Conversations’ project, showcasing leaders taking action to respond to climate change and was names in 2023 and 2024 in the Top Green Energy Players in the Australian newspaper.