Dr. John Upton:

The demand profile on a dairy farm has a peak in the morning and a peak in the evening. The electricity generation profile is at its peak in the middle of the day, when one is not milking the cows. Clearly, some energy storage is required. Some can be implemented quite cheaply. The cheapest way to implement storage is through storing hot water in a dairy water heater. That can be implemented at a cost of roughly €40 per kWh of storage. That level would get a dairy farm to approximately 30% of renewable consumption without additional storage. Higher levels would require additional storage systems, such as ice. One of the main requirements for energy on a farm is cooling. If one builds a bank of ice with electricity, one can then use that later for cooling milk. Implementing an ice storage system would cost approximately €200 per kWh of storage. Batteries would be an option to go even higher and would cost approximately €400 per kWh. Energy can be stored cheaply in some systems, but it will cost more with different technologies.