Agricultural Business Saves Energy Costs with Battery Storage

Farm of the future

The Leidenberg Farm is a modern and future-orientated company. Five full-time employees farm 78 hectares of agricultural land, 150 dairy cows and 700 fattening pigs. The dairy barn was newly built a few years ago. It was clear to the farmers that photovoltaic systems would be installed on the roofs. An acquaintance put them in touch with Peter Schürch. His company, Soltracting AG, manages over 15 photovoltaic systems in central Switzerland and knows all about economical solar power.

High total energy costs made the investment in a battery storage system attractive

When evaluating the last few years of operation of the photovoltaic system, Peter Schürch realised that the total energy costs of the Leidenberg farm were still very high. The reason for this was the energy costs and, above all, the power measurement of the purchased electricity. With 60,000 kWh of purchased energy annually, the farm had to carry out and pay for power metering. This resulted in over 25 centimes/kWh total energy costs for the year, too much for a farm with an annual consumption of 120,000 kWh and a photovoltaic system with 520 kWp.

Together with the operations manager, Peter Schürch looked for solutions to reduce the costs for the business. Negotiations with the local electricity company were not satisfactory. A way had to be found to reduce the annual consumption from the local electricity company to below 50,000 kWh so that the power metering did not have to be paid for.

Visualise & optimise self-consumption to save costs

The solution was a 65 kWh battery storage system from ecocoach AG. With the battery storage system, more than 60 kWh of solar power can now be used directly on the farm daily. Over the year, this increases self-consumption by over 18,000 kWh to 78,000 kWh. This means that instead of 50 % of annual consumption, 65 % is covered by electricity from the photovoltaic system. Purchases from the local electricity company have fallen below 50,000 kWh, meaning that power metering is no longer required and does not have to be paid for. Peter Schürch has calculated that the Leidenberg farm will save over CHF 80,000 over the next 15 years—a very profitable application of the stationary battery storage system from ecocoach AG.

Peter Schürch is convinced: «Even today, installing a second storage system is economical for the farm. As the company's electricity consumption will continue to rise over the next few years, we will come very close to the limit of power measurement without a second storage system.»

This example shows that a battery storage system can also be used in agriculture to optimise energy consumption. We would be happy to help you and reduce your energy costs.