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.