Currey Flowers and Flower Association Queensland Incorporated hosted a Farm Water Futures and Energy Efficiency Field Day at Currey Flowers in May highlighting energy and water innovations in place at the farm.
Field Day
Attendees heard how the addition of ultra filtration has improved the efficiency of the reverse osmosis system, leading to improved water quality and filtration system efficiency.
Lex McMullin told attendees how designing irrigation systems, starting with the plant crop requirements, can ensure the crop receives the right amount of water at the right time, saving both energy and water. He gave an example of how changing the irrigation pipe diameter from 32mm to 50mm for a system moving water at the target velocity of 2 metres per sencond would reduce pumping energy requirements by up to 90 per cent.
Energy Efficiency
The farm recently had an Energy Savers audit and has since implemented some of the findings.
The energy auditor used a thermal camera to identify significant losses from cold rooms and made a few simple recommendations to improve cold room efficiency by up to 10 per cent, such as replacing worn door seals, adding strip curtains and limiting the amount of time the doors were open.
A power factor correction (PFC) unit was installed to improve power factor from 0.72 to 0.9 leading to demand savings of 12kVA and annual cost savings of around $3,000.
The farm changed over lighting to LED saving over $500 in annual costs.
Adding a variable speed control and pressure transducer to the pump will save nearly $600 per year extra by allowing the pump to operate at its best efficiency point and manage pressure in different sized irrigation zones.
Solar Power
A 30.4kW solar PV system has been installed to generate power on site and has reduced the farm’s annual grid power by nearly 40,000kWh, saving nearly $11,000.
See the Energy Savers case study HERE.