Solar panels and farms look like a match made in heaven. Not only do solar panels provide an unexpected benefit to farm workers, but the land beneath the solar panels also proves beneficial to animals, including cows, sheep, and even bee colonies. For one Australian farmer, switching to solar power just hasn’t worked, because most of his work is required during the hours of the day when there is no sun. So he came up with an interesting workaround: a fully portable solar power system housed in shipping containers coupled with added weight in the battery storage department.
One of the biggest challenges with solar power is the high upfront cost, but for Peter Mulheron, who operates a large dairy farm of more than 200 cows in Victoria, Australia, the energy needs were complex on several fronts. For starters, the schedule is pretty much dictated by the livestock, mostly early in the morning or at night. Mulheron also needed a reliable source of energy for milk refrigeration, and the entire operation’s demand for hot water consumed more than half of the entire farm’s energy costs.
How was the portable system born?
After implementing a traditional solar energy installation, Mulheron realized that the system he had purchased was not enough to cover his farm’s entire expenses. But the power supply wasn’t its biggest problem. He and his family appear to be toward the end of their farming careers, so Mulheron wanted a solar installation that wasn’t as permanent — or as expensive — as solar cells in a field. It turns out that his son Matt was an electrical engineering student and intern at a company that designs off-grid solar and battery systems, and that company had developed a prototype of portable solar and battery storage systems deployed from shipping containers.
The portable system uses panels capable of delivering 105 kW of power and a battery storage of up to 241 kWh, which was enough to meet all of Mulheron’s agricultural needs. The system operates from shipping containers and a complete solar array can be deployed on rails to meet the dairy farm’s energy demands. But even though the deployment itself takes nearly four hours, the extra effort is worth it. For what? The solar farm on wheels covers 90% of the farm’s total electricity demand, while reducing annual energy costs by more than $22,000.
Are there other portable solar panels?
Portable solar power is nothing new. In fact, smaller, collapsible solar panels are commercially available, perfect for RV dwellers, camping enthusiasts, and power outages. These solutions are lightweight and efficient enough to provide the power needed to charge laptops and all other types of devices. Power output varies between manufacturers, but it can range from 100W to 450W. Overall, these solutions are great for those who can’t justify shelling out thousands of dollars for a traditional system.
But what about portable panels on a larger scale? Those exist too. The solar panels used on Mulheron’s farm came from a company called PHNXX, a company that builds off-grid modular solar and battery systems. Housed in packaging resembling shipping containers, this portable solar power plant can be deployed almost anywhere there is enough sunlight. In total, one container weighs 20 tonnes and includes 240 foldable solar panels. Once expanded, the solar farm can span nearly 400 feet and, best of all, provide 140 kW.
