Eighteen months ago we engaged with specialists in planning for our future energy needs. This was not driven only by the lack of continuous availability from the national grid, but also due to the increasing energy costs and our commitment to lowering our carbon footprint and to farming more sustainably. This has been a lengthy process, starting with the application to register as an independent energy supplier. Installation on the different sites started during the first week of February and was completed by the end of March. In total, our installations have the capacity to generate 1250 KWP of renewable energy. This will be sufficient to produce 100% of all our energy requirements over a 12-month period. As of today, DIPPENAAR FARMS are energy neutral. We are still connected to the national grid to enable us to feed solar energy into the grid during our periods of low consumption and extract energy in our periods of high demand.
Based on the current cost and escalation trend of electricity, the solar installation should pay for itself in under 44 months. As the installation has a guarantee of 25 years productivity, the financial decision was a “no brainer” and something we could recommend to all.
