Source
https://ausveg.com.au/app/data/technical-insights/docs/3184208_164290_VG13054%20-%20Final%20Report%20Complete.PDF — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Context: ni · feeds d01 (renewable energy & storage — demand-side load) · Australian proxy
Summary
VG13054 (Horticulture Innovation Australia, John Cumming / Infotech Research, 2015) audited and benchmarked energy use across 22 Australian vegetable growers, covering irrigation, processing, and cool storage. For the Neobiome energy model it is the only retrievable anchor for the vegetable cold-storage electricity load — the one coolstore figure with no NZ source and no prior retrieved primary. It reports cool-store energy on two bases: per tonne of product (average 62 kWh/t across the growers; refrigeration alone averaging 72 kWh/t, with good performers under 50 kWh/t) and per m³ of cool-store space (a wide 39–294 kWh/m³ spread driven by structure, refrigeration efficiency and throughput). It is an Australian proxy (data_quality medium): herd of growers, crops, climate and tariffs differ from NZ, so the figures transfer as an order-of-magnitude vegetable-coolstore benchmark, not an NZ value. It firms the vegetable leg of CR_058 and resolves RT_396.
Key claims
- claim: "Cool-store energy per tonne of vegetable product: 'The average energy used to run cool stores totalled 62 kWh per tonne across the 22 growers.' A wide grower spread underlies the average — an efficient band around ~100 kWh/t of finished product, a second band at ~150 kWh/t, and four growers from 270 to 350 kWh/t (the high group running more complex/larger operations)."
source_location: "§ Cool store energy (kWh/t), ~p.18 — 'average ... 62 kWh per tonne across the 22 growers'; grower bands 100 / 150 / 270-350 kWh/t"
- claim: "Refrigeration energy intensity: 'Good performance for most vegetables may be less than 50 kWh/t used in refrigeration, the average was 72 kWh/t, but this depends on the crop and processing requirements.'"
source_location: "§ Refrigeration energy (kWh/t) — verbatim; <50 good / 72 average kWh/t"
- claim: "Cool-store space efficiency: 'The efficiency of the cool stores themselves was measured as the energy used per m3 of cool store space ... varying from 39 to 294 kWh/m3 of space' — an indicator affected by structure, refrigeration-system efficiency and throughput (the grower with the highest kWh/m3 had the lowest m3-per-tonne)."
source_location: "§ Cool store energy per m3 (kWh/m3/y) — verbatim; range 39-294 kWh/m3"Neobiome Intelligence relevance
The vegetable cold-storage load benchmark. The Neobiome energy model sizes a community’s cold-storage electricity demand (the refrigeration load its generation + storage must serve). Fruit/near-0°C storage is anchored NZ-side by LIT_118 (Merts & Cleland ~79 kWh/m³/yr) and OT_205 (kiwifruit ~0.44 kWh/TE); vegetable cold storage had no retrieved anchor. VG13054 fills it: for planning, ~62 kWh/t (or the 39–294 kWh/m³ space band) is the vegetable-coolstore proxy, with refrigeration ~50–72 kWh/t. ⚠ Australian proxy — use as an order-of-magnitude figure; a NZ vegetable-coolstore electricity value would be preferable if one is ever found. Firms CR_058’s 50–75 kWh/t vegetable leg (which cited this report as an unretrieved lead until now).
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- RT_396 — RESOLVED → OT_206. VG13054 retrieved + verified; the vegetable-coolstore proxy is now held. (A NZ vegetable-coolstore electricity figure remains preferable but none was found; not opening a new RT for it — the gap is noted here.)
Notes
- Provenance. Direct first-party download from ausveg.com.au (the publisher’s technical-insights repository); authoritative PDF, not AI-prepared — no
## Retrieval provenanceblock. Identity confirmed against the raw: VG13054, John Cumming, Infotech Research, published by Horticulture Innovation Australia, 57pp. - data_quality: medium — Australian PROXY. Not NZ; crops, climate, farm scale and tariffs differ. Transfers as a vegetable-coolstore order-of-magnitude benchmark, consistent with how the international coolstore proxy LIT_119 is treated.
- Scope.
context: ni, feeds d01, resolves RT_396, cross-refs CR_058. No engine cell changed here — the modeling work decides how the ~62 kWh/t / 39–294 kWh/m³ vegetable-coolstore figure enters the cold-storage load calc.
Connections
Links to
Referenced by