Cooling and cool rooms use a great deal of energy; together with irrigation pumps, cooling accounts for 66% of greenhouse gas emissions from vegetable farms. Of course, the industry product has to get the market, retailer or processor in good condition. This generally means cooling products as quickly as possible and storing at the optimum [...]
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Energy audits are an excellent way of measuring farm energy use and potentially saving money on electricity bills. Audits are expensive, in the order of $10,000 for a detailed level 2 audit of a large-scale vegetable farm, but savings can be considerable, and the pay-back period is commonly about 1-2 years. In addition, there is [...]
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There are a number of electrical power generation technologies which are suitable for use on farm. These options can be compared using the ‘levelled cost of energy’ (LCOE). This is the average price of electricity generated over the plant life taking into account all costs and maintenance required. As it takes into account all costs [...]
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