Latest news with #Solayer
Otago Daily Times
24-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Aim to help farmers with energy use
Farmers have the power. That is the mission of new business Solayer NZ, which has been founded in the heart of the Central Otago farming community to connect farmers with sustainable energy options. Ranfurly vet, farmer and sustainability advocate Becks Smith, founder of The Whole Story, became inspired after a podcast episode featuring electricity entrepreneur and orchardist Mike Casey. It got her thinking about farm energy efficiency and then farm energy generation and she decided she wanted to put some solar panels on the Smith family farm. While she did the farm's accounts, she had never really looked at the electricity bill. She discovered electricity for irrigation was $28,000 a year and thought the family must be able to do something about that. Eager to put some solar panels at the irrigation pump site, Mrs Smith called various companies but discovered she did not understand the language used and representatives tended to want to spend half a day on-farm talking and had "no concept of farmer time". The process was not as easy as she thought it should be, so she decided to start a service offering to support farmers. But she realised she could not do it by herself, so she partnered with Lauder-based Dunstan Brook-Miller, whose background was in environmental science, energy and electricity, and David O'Sullivan, from Cambrians, who understood project management and "building things". The first 55kW ground mounted solar system was installed in a paddock by the irrigation pump shed on the Smith farm in January this year. Since then, Solayer had done another five installations. Those installations were all in the Maniototo and the business had proposals out through wider Otago. They could handle inquiries from throughout New Zealand as they had partnered with others to deliver the installations. "We've really recognised our opportunity to support farmers to get the right solutions," she said. Primarily, the purpose was to offset farm working expenses. Their system sat in the mid-scale solution category, for those wanting to offset expenses and build some resilience into their business. As a vet, Mrs Smith said she had spent 15 years working out ways of optimising farm solutions. Solar was one way that, if farmers invested in it, they did not risk anything or have to compromise on performance. As a farmer, that was "huge" for her. Involved herself with on-site installing, it was practical problem-solving in the field. Similar to the veterinary profession, "you can see progress and know you're making a difference", she said. Looking at the energy ecosystem in New Zealand, power costs were only going one way and there had to be a shift away from fossil fuels. Once farmers were comfortable with how they generated their own energy, then energy efficiency on-farm needed to be addressed, she said. Mrs Smith was fascinated with what Mr Casey had done for cherries, with his all-electric orchard in Central Otago, and she questioned what an electric — or even energy efficient — sheep and beef farm looked like in New Zealand.
Otago Daily Times
18-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Helping farmers improve energy use
Farmers have the power. That is the mission of a new business Solayer NZ which has been founded in the heart of the Central Otago farming community to connect farmers with sustainable energy options. Ranfurly vet, farmer and sustainability advocate Becks Smith, founder of The Whole Story, became inspired after a podcast episode featuring Mike Casey, the electricity entrepreneur and orchardist. It got her thinking about farm energy efficiency and then farm energy generation and she decided she wanted to put some solar panels on the Smith family farm. While she did the farm's accounts, she had never really looked at the electricity bill. She discovered electricity for irrigation was $28,000 a year and thought the family must be able to do something about that. Eager to put some solar panels at the irrigation pump site, Mrs Smith called various companies but discovered she did not understand the language used and representatives tended to want to spend half a day on farm talking and had "no concept of farmer time". The process was not as easy as she thought it should be, so she decided to start a service offering to support farmers. But she realised she could not do it by herself, so she partnered with Lauder-based Dunstan Brook-Miller, whose background was in environmental science, energy and electricity, and David O'Sullivan, from Cambrians, who understood project management and "building things". The first 55kW ground mounted solar system was installed in a paddock by the irrigation pump shed on the Smith farm in January this year. Since then, Solayer had done another five installations. Those installations were all in the Maniototo and the business had proposals out through wider Otago. They could handle inquiries from throughout New Zealand as they had partnered with others to deliver the installations. "We've really recognised our opportunity to support farmers to get the right solutions," she said. Primarily, the purpose was to offset farm working expenses. Their system sat in the mid-scale solution category, for those wanting to offset expenses and build some resilience into their business. As a vet, Mrs Smith said she had spent 15 years working out ways of optimising farm solutions. Solar was one way that, if farmers invested in it, they did not risk anything or have to compromise on performance. As a farmer, that was "huge" for her. Involved herself with on-site installing, it was practical problem-solving in the field. Similar to the veterinary profession, "you can see progress and know you're making a difference", she said. Looking at the energy eco-system in New Zealand, power costs were only going one way and there had to be a shift away from fossil fuels. Once farmers were comfortable with how they generated their own energy, then energy efficiency on-farm needed to be addressed, she said. Mrs Smith was fascinated with what Mr Casey had done for cherries, with his all-electric orchard in Central Otago, and she questioned what an electric — or even energy efficient — sheep and beef farm looked like in New Zealand.
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
The push to power farms by solar
The Energy Minister Simon Watts has launched the Solar on Farms initiative at Fieldays - with plans for tools and data to be made available as well as moves to make financing these products easier. ASB Bank is offering interest free loans up to $150,000 over 5 years. It comes as joint venture company Farmlands Flex adds its launch of a software product that will help connect solar systems to batteries and the grid. Farmlands Flex chief executive is Andrew Pegler and Becks Smith is founder of Solayer - a company installing solar systems on farm.
Associated Press
10-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Bitget Wallet to Power $LAYER Airdrop Claims and Trading at TGE
VICTORIA, Seychelles, Feb. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bitget Wallet, a leading Web3 non-custodial wallet, announced its pioneering support for Solayer's $LAYER Genesis Drop. Users can now check airdrop eligibility directly in the wallet, with full support for token claiming and trading starting at the Token Generation Event (TGE) on February 11, 2025. This streamlined process ensures easy verification, token claims, and immediate trading access. Bitget Wallet is one of the earliest wallets to support the $LAYER Genesis Drop, demonstrating its dedication to keeping users at the forefront of token opportunities. Eligible users who staked $SOL and accumulated points can check their eligibility now by navigating to the airdrop section on Bitget Wallet's Discover page. From February 11, users can seamlessly claim their $LAYER airdrop within the wallet. Immediately after claiming, users will have access to $LAYER trading, capturing potential market opportunities as prices evolve. Bitget Wallet also offers real-time K-line charts for dynamic trading insights, providing a one-stop platform to claim, manage, and trade $LAYER tokens. Solayer has revealed comprehensive tokenomics for $LAYER, detailing its total supply of 1 billion tokens and an initial circulating supply of 220 million. The airdrop will allocate 12% of the token supply to over 250,000 early users who meet the eligibility criteria. Users can now check their eligibility directly within the Bitget Wallet. The allocation checker will go live on February 10, and eligible users will be able to claim their tokens starting February 11. The claiming period will extend for 30 days, with rewards structured based on the amount and duration of users' staking activities, designed to promote sustained engagement. Solayer is a blockchain platform designed to tackle scalability challenges through advanced hardware acceleration. Its InfiniSVM architecture enables high-throughput and near-zero latency, processing over 1,000,000 transactions per second with network bandwidth exceeding 100 Gbps. This design scales the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to support next-generation decentralized applications (dApps) while maintaining strong security. Through its innovative restaking feature, users can leverage their staked assets as collateral, optimizing asset use and enhancing Solana network security while offering greater reward opportunities. Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet, stated: 'By supporting Solayer's $LAYER Genesis Drop, we enable our users to fully benefit from the evolving Solana ecosystem, whether through token claims or trading functionalities. With Bitget Wallet's streamlined integration of these services, users can seamlessly access DeFi opportunities and play an active role in the growth of next-generation dApps.' About Bitget Wallet Bitget Wallet is the home of Web3, uniting endless possibilities in one non-custodial wallet. With over 60 million users, it offers comprehensive onchain services, including asset management, instant swaps, rewards, staking, trading tools, live market data, a DApp browser, an NFT marketplace and crypto payment. Supporting over 100 blockchains, 20,000+ DApps, and 500,000+ tokens, Bitget Wallet enables seamless multi-chain trading across hundreds of DEXs and cross-chain bridges, along with a $300+ million protection fund to ensure safety of users' assets. Experience Bitget Wallet Lite to start a Web3 journey.
