sheep grazing under solar panels

Agrifood Energy Transitions
In an environment of increasing energy prices and demand to reduce greenhouse emissions across the economy, the agrifood sector has found it challenging to find fit for purpose energy alternatives. ANU has world class expertise which can support a renewable energy transition in the sector.

The agricultural sector remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels to power on-farm operations as well as fertiliser production, leaving the sector exposed to energy price volatility. Upstream food processing and distribution are also energy intensive. Rural industries and agrifood value-chains require access to affordable, clean and deployable energy solutions to accelerate the transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources. While the sector can leverage off advances in renewable development and deployment in other sectors, the sector will require bespoke integration solutions, and in some cases novel technologies, to meet their specific needs. The integration of renewable energy into agrifood systems provides a unique opportunity to reduce emissions, diversify income, and reduce input costs, while increasing energy independence, however the transition faces numerous challenges.

The lack of electric grid infrastructure in regional areas poses both access and reliability constraints to electrification of farm operations. This will require innovative energy storage, grid integration solutions and rural infrastructure investment. The sector also has unique energy demand requirements for seasonal, high-torque, on-demand, long-duty-cycle heavy machinery, making the return on investment for renewables less attractive than sectors with more uniform year-round production cycles. While renewables tend to have a much lower maintenance and life-time cost compared to the fossil fuel counterparts, upfront capital investment is higher, which is a barrier for a sector where many operations have low and highly variable cashflow.

Agricultural communities are also being affected by the broader societal shift to renewables with generation and transmission infrastructure often located in agricultural landscapes. Traditionally this has been framed as land-use conflict, rather than an opportunity for beneficial co-existence. To address this conflict, meaningful community engagement will be required often and early when designing renewables projects, to better understand the concerns of local communities and co-design viable solutions. In Australia and globally, agrifood operations have access to significant renewable resources (wind, solar, biomass), providing an opportunity for the sector to diversify and become a major energy producer. However, collaboration and coordination between government, industry and local communities is needed deliver the enabling policy, infrastructure and demand signals to translate this opportunity into a reality.

Investment opportunities

To address these challenges the agrifood sector will need to invest in developing:

  • pathways to optimise on-farm energy use and transition away from fossil-fuels, including demonstration of successful integration of renewable technologies into production systems
  • new business models for energy and energy service provision to reduce barriers to adoption, including innovation in ownership models and financing to address high upfront capital costs
  • frameworks to assess the productivity, financial and environmental impacts of adopting new energy technologies
  • fit-for-purpose turn-key energy solutions to meet individual on-farm demand characteristics
  • policy analysis to improve economic, social and environmental outcomes of the energy transition and the impact of future regulatory changes in renewable energy development on production and financial viability of farming systems
  • grid integration and orchestration solutions including improved control systems to coordinate and shift energy demand, provide grid services and improve grid resilience
  • frameworks for community engagement to produce equitable benefit-sharing arrangements and improve social licence.                    

Focus areas

The Australian National University (ANU) has world class expertise which can be deployed to help address barriers to a renewable energy transition in the agrifood sector and create novel solutions to accelerate the transition. The Agrifood Energy Transitions theme will be delivered through a user-centric co-design approach, by engaging with government, industry and community stakeholders, with a focus on translating ANU capability into impact in the following areas:

  • improved energy system transition and decarbonisation pathways
  • exploiting the synergies of agricultural production and solar photovoltaics to improve farming and environmental outcomes with agrivoltaics
  • novel energy storage and grid integration solutions to improve resilience and financial and social outcomes
  • demand response and load shifting opportunities to reduce energy and production costs
  • on-farm and value-chain electrification and energy-use efficiency
  • improved biofuel production and integration into production systems, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and providing alternative income streams
  • improved energy and land-use policies to drive equitable energy transition outcomes
  • innovation in financing of renewable energy technologies and services
  • community engagement, social impact and adoption.

ANU has academic expertise in: