Solar success for Victorian bulb farm

P Aker Flowerbulbs is a bulb farm located at Silvan, Victoria, in the rich volcanic soil area of the Dandenong Ranges. Energy is one of the major overheads of the farm, due to the need to power different cool rooms at a precise temperature depending on the species of bulb.

“We only started in Australia in the 1980s and sell tulips, lilies, irises, gladioli, hyacinths, daffodils and other bulbs,” said the company’s managing director, Matt Blom. “Our cool rooms have to maintain a precise temperature ranging from 30+ to -1.5°C, depending on the species.

“The purpose of the temperature control is to put the bulb to sleep so that our customer, the flower grower, can produce flowers all year round.”

After averaging $60,000 a year on energy, the company recruited energy management company AEES Group to design and install a solar system to help reduce costs. Richard Martin, AEES Group managing director, said the company started on the design by taking the solar usage interval data which is now available from the smart meters that have been installed throughout Victoria.

“We used this to determine the size of the solar system that would be required and the economic justification for the capital cost,” said Martin. “The data allowed us to do an accurate cost-benefit analysis.

“We recommended a system with 231 Trina Smart panels coupled with Tigo DC optimisation as we have always received high yields from this system with remote live time monitoring, which allows us to provide timely maintenance and quickly detect any problems.

“The monitoring results are also beamed to the head office of Aker Flowerbulbs in Holland and they have been so impressed that they have moved to install their own solar system based on the Australian experience,” he said.

Blom said P Aker Flowerbulbs is now on track to substantially reduce its energy costs, relying on solar power during the day and off-peak grid power during the night. “But even so, we are currently exploring the economics of the use of batteries in conjunction with our solar,” he said.

“We expect to save the capital cost of the system in five years, with savings of $13,497, or 32%, in year one and continuing to $176,010, or 31%, in year 10.”