Introduction

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This blog and video outlines Andrew Grant’s fish farming business in one of the outer suburbs of Melbourne and his adoption of renewable energy via a 70 kW solar system.

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Andrew:

I'm Andrew Grant, owner of a 50-tonne barramundi farm. I wear many hats as Director, employee, driver, you name it.

Interviewer:

How did you start the business?

Andrew:

I  started it from scratch and we had nothing here. It was  just a flat paddock and we've had to put in fences, infrastructure, three-phase power,  water, everything, so it's been a journey. 

In 2001 I bought the property. We have seven to nine different species of fish here: barramundi, murray cod, abalone lobsters and the crabs  and they're all basic staples in the live seafood industry.

Interviewer:

Do you customers demand certain products?

Andrew:

Our customers absolutely dictate what we provide here. The barramundi was the first thing we provided and it's all about the barramundi farm here but we supply other species because the customers want it,  they want a one-stop shop so rather than bringing several different suppliers for several different species we provide those other species for them.

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Interviewer:

You obviously enjoy your job!

Andrew:

I get a lot of personal joy from producing a premium product and getting it into the restaurants and getting feedback from their customers on, you know, how wonderful  and fresh, you know, the product is and it's an experience that not many people get to enjoy these days, you know most of our products are frozen thawed so to go from literally swimming that morning to on your plate in the afternoon.  .  .  .  .

And the freshness cannot be beat. You know it's just such a unique flavour and taste.

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Interviewer:

Obviously your customers demand the best price?

Andrew:

Most of my customers are price driven and if I can offer them a cost-effective product and it just so happens to be clean and green then why not do it. You know it just makes a lot of sense to me.

Interviewer:

Apart from solar what other ‘green’ measures have you put in place?

Andrew:

I'm very keen to sort of leave the land better than we found it and have, you know, a young daughter and so forth. I also want to do something for the planet. So as part of the process here I've also put up native vegetation, trying to do some carbon capture. We've got some fantastic native trees around the place but to follow that through you know I really had to cut back on energy costs.

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Interviewer:

What was the whole process like when looking for a suitable company to design and install the system?

Andrew:

I had a number of companies approach me but you guys were actually concerned about the business and working with me and asking me the questions about how you can complement and work within the business.

 So one of the biggest things here is that we're a 24/ 7 operation and you guys were more than willing to work with our hours and not upset the process of growing the fish you know fish didn't miss a beat.  It was great.

You guys met the cost but it wasn't just about the cost it was about the service as well.

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Interviewer:

Is power at all costs crucial for this site?

Andrew:

Power is absolutely essential to the business. I cannot lose it for more than 20 minutes without devastating results

We're a remote sort of site here and we get a lot of hoons coming down hitting power poles and even stealing cars and setting them on fire next to the power poles so we do have a lot of outages you know and they can they can be for three four you know even five six days so we rely on the generator quite heavily we only have a 20 minute window here with losing the power otherwise the fish will all suffocate and we lose the lot.

Interviewer:

What do you think of the commercial solar system we installed?

Andrew:

Yeah once I saw the installation working  I was very impressed with the layout, the way it was put in,  the efficiency in which it was done and the impact on the business. 

It was all great and then when  I saw the inverter humming away and realised my bill was coming down, what's not to like.

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