Innovation fund project – Glendev Farms

Solar Renewable Energy Ltd have initiated this project to install solar water heating and a heat recovery system into a dairy farm in Reporoa. The farm has a herd of 370 cows and has a typically high demand for hot water due to the cleaning processes which require approx 750 litres of 85 degree water daily.
The system installed is made up of a 29m2 Zen International solar water heating system, a Bosch gas system for back up water heating and an Alfa Lava plate heat exchanger that allows heat recovery from the waste water from the cleaning process.

It is anticipated that if this installation is considered a success, there will be a number of additional installations within a local cluster of dairy farms.

The system has been installed and is being monitored for energy savings. The final results are expected in March 2010.