★ SEAI Energy Awards 2026 Finalist · Small Business

Thirty Years, and a Finalist for SEAI Energy Awards 2026

In 2018 we set a public commitment. We nearly made it.

On our 2025 Sustainability page we committed to becoming a carbon-neutral business by 2025. Seven years later, in September 2026, AgriData Ltd marked thirty years in operation. One week after that, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland shortlisted us as finalists in their Energy Awards.

The idea of self-generated power on this land, though, is older than AgriData itself — our father built a waterwheel here in the 1930s that gave the family house its first electric light. The 2018 commitment was a return to a principle, not a new one.

This page documents the journey — what we did, what it cost, what worked, and what did not. The Gala Ceremony is on 4 November 2026 at the InterContinental Dublin.

Aerial view of the AgriData site at Cluen, Bansha, Co. Tipperary

THE 2025 OUTCOMES

Verified against primary business records: six Electric Ireland invoices for 2018 electricity, sixty-one diesel invoices from our accounting system, and the Huawei FusionSolar monitoring system attached to the business meter.

63%
Reduction in total energy delivered to site, 2018 → 2025
100%
Elimination of on-site fossil fuels (kerosene and diesel)
~20 tonnes
CO2 avoided every year, approximately 89% reduction
96.2%
Self-funded. €134,202 of €139,500 total from company reserves

The Journey — Including the Failure

Phased investments, decided one at a time. Each informed the next.

1930s
Before AgriData. On this same land, our father hand-dug a headrace on the local river and built a 14-foot undershot waterwheel. It charged a bank of large glass 2.5-volt cells and gave the family house its first electric light — decades before rural electrification reached this part of Tipperary. The remains are still there.
The surviving iron rim of a 1930s waterwheel standing in a field, overgrown with ivy and winter grass
What remains today, on the same land where our solar PV arrays now stand. The only surviving photograph of the wheel, found by our sister a few years ago.
1996
AgriData Ltd incorporated.
2007
Separate from the business: our family home converted from oil heating to a 50 kW wood gasifier using timber from our own forestry. Eighteen years of operation since. The experience shaped everything that followed on the business side.
2018
Public commitment to carbon neutrality by 2025 (our Sustainability page). Baseline recorded: ~21,000 kWh grid electricity, 2,700 L kerosene, 2,750 L diesel.
2019
Two oil-fired central heating systems replaced with air source heat pumps. First EV charging on the business meter.
2020
Wind turbine installed — and underperformed. Surrounding tree cover reduced output well below expectations. The lesson — be ruthlessly honest in site surveys — shaped every subsequent decision. In the same year: 6 kWp solar PV and 15 kWh of battery storage, both of which performed strongly from day one.
2023
Mercedes GLC diesel replaced with Tesla Model Y AWD Long Range.
2024
Solar PV expanded by 15.66 kWp to 21.66 kWp total (56 panels). Battery storage doubled to 30 kWh. Ford Transit Connect replaced with VW ID Buzz. SEAI Non-Domestic Microgen grant €5,298 contributed to the PV expansion — the only grant received in the programme.
2025
100% elimination of on-site fossil fuels. 17.46 MWh of renewable electricity generated on-site. 5.71 MWh exported to the Irish grid.
2026
AgriData Ltd marks 30 years. SEAI Energy Awards shortlists AgriData as a finalist in the Small Business category. Gala ceremony on 4 November, InterContinental Dublin.

A Working Rural Business, Running on its Own Power

The site at Cluen, Bansha, Co. Tipperary — drone photographs, May 2026.

The main office building with its full-roof solar PV array
Tesla Model Y and VW ID Buzz at the stone office building
The 2020 wind turbine standing beside ground-mounted solar panels

On the Wind Turbine, and Why We Leave it Standing

The 6 kW turbine we installed in 2020 was a bad decision in its own terms. The mature tree cover surrounding our site reduces wind to a level that no small turbine can productively work with. Output has been consistently disappointing.

We mention it in every forum we talk about this — including the SEAI application — because the lesson is more useful to other small businesses than a glossy success story. Before you commit capital to renewable generation, be ruthlessly honest about site conditions. We weren't, and we have a six-year-old reminder standing beside the solar arrays to prove it.

We've worked hard for this. Now we'd like to share it.

If you're a small business thinking about your own transition, or an organisation documenting what works and what doesn't, we are genuinely open to hosting visits and sharing what we learned.

Visit the Site

Walk the site, see the installations, ask the awkward questions.

Email David Mullins →

Download the Supporting Document

Three-page PDF: comparison chart, timeline, investment breakdown.

Download PDF ↓