Australian farmers are turning to renewables to “take back control” of their bottom lines—avoiding volatile fuel and fertilizer prices, growing their local economies, and adding new streams of revenue on their properties.

Around 400 delegates attended a National Renewables in Agriculture conference in Orange, New South Wales, this August, Renew Economy writes. The discussions among farmers, consultants, and government representatives showed an alternate side to the “nonsense” stereotype spread on social media of rural pushback against renewables.

At the conference, attendees argued against continued reliance on imports and fossil fuels.

“We’ve had Ukraine,” Monica Morona, a farmer from the Hay Plains in southwest New South Wales, told participants. “We’ve now had Iran.”

“Obviously, this is not going to go away. And these price shocks and supply chain shocks are continuing to cause problems.”

The American/Israeli war on Iran burdened Australian farmers with a spike in diesel prices as well as a severe surge in the price of fertilizer after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

By hosting solar or wind farms on their land, farmers can gain additional sources of revenue and power on-farm green hydrogen production that can be used to manufacture fertilizer or replace diesel.

In one presentation, New Zealand-based energy company Hiringa discussed a plan for a network of green hydrogen facilities that would produce 488,000 tonnes of low-carbon ammonia for fertilizer by the late 2030s. That production could translate into a 95% cut in Australia’s emissions from fertilizer use in agriculture.

Morona, who is working with Hiringa, told Renew Economy that she aims to help create Australia’s first commercial-scale green ammonia plant, Riverina Renewable Hydrogen, which builds on Hiringa’s Good Earth Green Hydrogen and Ammonia project. Morona said the plant will provide fertilizer products for nearby growers, with lower freight costs and more reliable supply.

“We all depend on fertilizer solutions shipped from the other side of the world, and our commodity prices are not rising in line with the cost of inputs,” she said. “This is a way for us to take control back.”

Conference participants had a chance to tour the See Saw organic winery, which is piloting the use of  floating solar panels to generate electricity and reduce soil evaporation, reports the Australian Associated Press.

The conference is in its seventh year and was sold out in the two previous years. Founder Karin Stark, a farmer in Narromine, New South Wales, told Western Plains App that her own family farm had installed a large solar-powered irrigation pumping system in 2018. Though the system initially helped the farm use low solar prices to avoid high diesel costs, problems down the line prompted Stark to launch the conference as a way for farmers to share both good and bad experiences with renewable energy on their farms.

“I’ve come across so many other farmers doing really innovative, incredible work with renewables, but there just wasn’t anywhere for them to share those stories with other farmers,” she said.

Rural acceptance of renewable energy options is not exclusive to Australia, despite media narratives to the contrary. In the United States, a study released this past winter revealed that the threat of solar energy to agriculture in New York state had likely been overstated, as the majority of farmers there who signed large-scale solar leases said they would use the new revenue to reinvest in their farms rather than scale down operations. In Canada, a pilot project for on-farm green ammonia production found renewed publicity during this past spring’s fertilizer price shocks.