The A2EP team recently went west for the second National Renewables in Agriculture conference. Karin Stark and the organising team drew about 200 people back into a room, this time in Dubbo. There was a also a sizable on-line audience.
The program featured real world examples of on-farm innovations that improve reliability, shrink bills or make money and reduce emissions. Discussion canvassed commercial and practical issues for farmers and the costs and benefits, both expected and unexpected (a better night's sleep!).
Many of the projects extend beyond energy to include water and waste. The sessions covered a range of topics including financing, bioenergy and large scale projects detailed the ‘how to’.
The strength of this event in still challenging times demonstrates the huge interest in using and producing energy better and the role that farmers can and are keen to play in decarbonising the economy while producing for Australia and the world.
Over the last few years A2EP has been working with the principal conference sponsor, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI). We’ve produced a study on the potential for energy productivity to lower input costs and increase yield. We facilitated ten studies of technical and commercial feasibility and now DPI is taking five of those projects, at ten sites, to pilot implementation.
It was great to be travelling again and connecting with members, partners and interested stakeholders. We hope to do it more soon.
