Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin
The Birkbeck family’s Raintree Farm distillery and restaurant arm is completely ‘off grid’ after more than a decade of research and infrastructure construction.
By being energy self-sufficient Steve said The Dam expected to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by between 105-150t a year.
The move to energy self-sufficiency has been a long-term goal that has cost more than $1 million.
Drawing on a mix of power generated from onsite hydro and solar infrastructure Steve said he’d presented a plan to the Shire more than a decade ago and had been putting things in place ever since.
“We have a large dam higher on the property and we’ll use gravity to run water down through big underground pipes into a Pelton wheel that extracts energy from the moving water,” he said.
Complementing the hydro power are 152 solar panels spread across the venue’s main roof and Steve said there was ample space for more panels if extra power was needed in the future.
A bank of 40 lithium batteries has also been installed to provide stored solar power for use during peak periods, night and times of low sunshine.
A 110kva diesel backup generator is also on hand but Steve said this had only been used once since going off grid in mid August and only during the time it took for the new batteries to become fully charged.
Steve said his son in law, Matt Beaton, who co-owns The Dam with wife Chelsea, had been the primary driver of the off-grid project due to his experience as a senior electrician in the oil and gas industry.
“It was important to make efficient use of the power we generate so we’ve also upgraded our system to three-phase power,” Matt said.
“Three phase is a more efficient and consistent form of power.
“We now have 160 amps of power available to use which is about 100 amps more than what was available when we used single phase via the grid.”
Matt said that if the restaurant and distillery needed to draw more than 160 amps, the batteries would kick in to provide the extra power.
“The distillery is undersized at the moment and if and when we expand it we’ll just add more solar panels and more batteries to the bank.”
Matt and Steve said creating a business that was as self-sufficient as possible with a low carbon footprint made economical, environmental and social sense.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 24 November 2022.
