Cadell Orchards
Australian Farming Services · Sunraysia, NSW · operating 2024
- 4.8 MW solar
- 4.2 MWh storage
- 7 km HV
- 20-yr PPA
No viable grid connection. Diesel irrigation replaced, with diesel use down around 85%.
AGL project page
Your own power system, built and run for you.
Behind-the-meter microgrids for large energy users across regional Australia. Solar, storage and firm generation, supplied under long-term power purchase agreements.
$250mof long-term PPAs originated and secured
$100m+of microgrids delivered and operating
$170m+of microgrids in development
95%average delivered cost against budget
From first site visit to twenty years of operation.
We originate directly with customers, model the site against its real load, structure the contract, and stay with the asset for its life.
The energy balance is the product.
Anyone can quote a solar array. The difficulty is proving what a system will do on the worst week of the year, and then pricing twenty years of energy against that answer with enough confidence to sign.
Orpheus is the modelling and dispatch engine we built to do exactly that. It is why our feasibility studies convert, why our projects land close to budget, and why the contract we sign is one we can stand behind.
Orpheus Sim — before it exists
Load profiles, solar and weather data, tariffs, equipment specifications and operating constraints run through an energy algorithm at interval resolution. The resulting energy balance feeds directly into capex, opex, PPA terms, funding and tax — so system design and commercial outcome are solved together rather than in sequence.
Orpheus Dispatch — once it is built
Day-ahead and intra-day setpoint schedules for generation, storage and load. An optimisation algorithm is solved over a rolling horizon and re-solved as load, weather and prices move, balancing energy cost, demand charges, fuel use and asset life against every physical and contractual limit on the site. Schedules are executed by the site control system, with protection and islanding staying where they belong.
One model, twenty years
The engine that priced the contract also runs the asset and reconciles delivered performance against it. Contracted outcomes get measured, not assumed — and every site that operates sharpens the forecast applied to the next one.
Solar
Storage
Firm generation
Site load
A day on an irrigated orchard microgrid at around 85% renewable penetration. Solar carries the pumping load, storage covers the evening peak and the early hours, and firm generation fills the pre-dawn gap.
What it delivers.
For customers
Lower energy costDisplace diesel and peak network charges
Reliable supplyFirm power where the connection is weak or absent
Scope 1 reductionUp to 85% less diesel on delivered sites
For owners and investors
Costed, not estimatedSupplier quotations blended with benchmarked industry rates
Contracted for 20 yearsTake-or-pay offtake with a credit-worthy customer
Upside retainedOrchestration-ready for flexibility and market revenue
Delivered projects.
Originated directly with the customer and structured by Joule NRG. Designed, built and operated in association with AGL.
Canally Almond Orchard
Australian Farming Services · Riverina, NSW · operating 2025
- 6.5 MW solar
- 5.1 MWh storage
- 20-yr PPA
Underground powerlines feed the pumping stations directly. Around 7,000 tonnes of Scope 1 emissions removed a year.
AGL news release
Kerarbury
ofi, owned by Rural Funds Group · Griffith, NSW · operating 2025
- 5.99 MW solar
- 4.5 MWh storage
- ~14,000 MWh/yr
- 20-yr PPA
Grid-connected, reaching around 83% renewable penetration, with market participation upside shared with the customer.
pv magazine Australia
Koompartu Farms
Riverland, SA · commissioned 2026
- 9.2 MWp solar
- 10.2 MWh storage
- 19 km HV
- 20-yr PPA
South Australia's largest almond orchard, and among the largest privately owned non-mining microgrids in the country.
pv magazine AustraliaWhere this works.
High consumption, land for generation, a constrained grid, and a load driven by process rather than occupancy. Agriculture proved it. The conditions hold well beyond it.
Agriculture and horticulture
5–50 GWh a year · seasonal pumping, remote sites, heavy diesel
Mining and minerals processing
20–120 GWh a year · continuous load, weak or absent connection
Food and beverage processing
10–50 GWh a year · steady process load, decarbonisation pressure
Manufacturing, water and pumping
5–70 GWh a year · long tenure, schedulable load
Send us a site and we will tell you quickly whether it works.
Twelve months of interval data and a site plan. First-pass energy balance and indicative PPA range in days, at no cost.
- Mark TalbotManaging Director / CTO
- Angela StantonCommercial Director
- Richard JohnstonDevelopment Director