It was through the hardworking Farmers for Climate Action that we first came into contact with Methuen Morgan and Dave Mailer, two blokes with a lot of farming experience behind them not to mention academic teaching positions at University in New England. Their quickly expanding business is Meralli Solar where they instal solar farms in the smaller 5 – 15 MW range of the market. They do this with private investment and no government subsidies and their business case is that subsidies aren’t needed given the economics these days of producing electricity from solar as opposed to burning coal. If subsidies are available, they reckon they’re far better directed at large battery development and deployment. They’re also adamant that regional and rural Australia is ripe for this business: the sun is there, the land is there and there are plenty of keen workers in every town and region they set up their solar farms in. Afterglow was able to film their latest solar farm, Meralli’s fourth, which is an hour west of Moree. The astoundingly short installation time (generally half to two thirds of what other solar farms take) is due to the German-developed peg system which requires no concreting or heavy structures and then’s there the and efficiency of these solar farms which is all about densely-packed photovoltaic panels. Their next project is down in Port Pirie, SA. This is something we can take heart from, finally some good news in a political enviroment where mainstream politicians are just so ineffective.