AgricultureEnergy

Sundrop Farms, world's first to produce with food from solar power, starts Port Augusta energy switch in 2016

Sundrop Farms, world's first to produce with food from solar power, starts Port Augusta energy switch in 2016
Sundrop Farms, near Port Augusta, is desalinating Spencer Gulf water to grow vegetables, with solar power.
Image courtesy Mother Nature Network

Sundrop Farms, a $100 million plant next to Spencer Gulf, in 2016 led the Port Augusta's transition from a coal-fired power station town to a solar industry region. 

Just south of Port Augusta, it was the world’s first large concentrated solar power to provide multiple energy streams – heating, fresh water, electricity – for horticulture.

Its greenhouse is in a warm-climate area lacking rainfall where traditional horticulture isn’t feasible.

By applying its proprietary technologies, Sundrop Farms have been growing delicious, natural and high-quality produce, using Southern Ocean seawater and sunlight. Its water comes from the Spencer Gulf and is desalinated using a cutting edge thermal desalination plant. 

It uses a state-of-the-art solar tower to produce energy to desalinate the water, power the plant-growing systems and to heat and cool the greenhouses as required. topped by a 234-tonne central boiler, The tower is 115m high and has 23,000 mirrors pointed at it. 

Sundrop secured a 10-year supply agreement with Australian supermarket chain Coles that underpinned the Port Augusta project and was Coles’ sustainable and ethical supplier of the year award winner in 2016.

Sundrop Farms can produce 17,000 tonnes of tomatoes each year using 22.5% less land than more traditional field production and uses significantly less water.

Having moved its global headquarters from London to Adelaide in 2017, Sundrop is now looking to for opportunities to expand in Australia and abroad now that it has proved the decoupling of traditional greenhouse reliance on fossil fuels and freshwater reserves.

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