Situated in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, renowned for its award winning wines and spectacular coastlines, Gloria Dieu is a family-owned and -operated farm producing premium dried fruit, fresh apricots, stud sheep and prime grass-fed Australian lamb. 

Since 2015, the Theron family have used Gloria Dieu’s motto “Seed Faith, Harvest, Hope” to inspire and inform their business strategy, along with a commitment to ‘give back’.

“Food is the one thing that unites us around the world; it brings families together, starts conversations, and brings joy,” explains co-owner Annecke Theron.

Committed to improving the farm’s environmental sustainability, the Therons paid upfront for a solar project that quickly proved insufficient for their needs. Within a year, their backup generator was running 24/7 and both fuel and energy usage had actually increased.

Not surprisingly, when they connected with the Sunwise Energy team to develop a new and improved commercial-grade solar project, the Therons had some reservations. But these were quickly alleviated once they realised Sunwise shared their innovative vision.

“Being ‘clean and green’ is really important to us,” says Annecke. “Solar made sense, no question. But our initial efforts cost us dearly, so we determined that the new project would be built in three stages, each carefully planned, engineered, and implemented at the right time for us.

Pollock Farm is a family-owned and operated farming business in the Lockyer Valley, Queensland. It produces hay and lucerne chaff, mainly for the horse industry. 

“Electricity to irrigate is the biggest expense on the farm at more than $100,00 a year,” says the farm’s owner, Lance Pollock.

With the price of electricity continuing to rise, Pollock Farm wanted to find a way to reduce energy costs. “Our main motivation was to reduce the power bill, update the farm and increase its energy-efficiency,” Lance explains.

Yet a major hurdle getting the project off the ground was upfront capital.

The solution

Instead of having to find money to pay for the project upfront, Pollock far discovered a payment plan solution through Smart Ease.

”With no upfront investment and instant pre-approval, the process from start to finish was completely seamless—and fast! It meant that we could get the project started quickly and start saving straight away,” said Lance.