SOLARWATT Farm Named German Irish Business Award Finalist
SOLARWATT Farm brings together Irish farming know-how and German engineering to put farmers in control of their energy.
Local Power and SOLARWATT have been named finalists in the Second German Irish Business Award 2026. The award recognises a partnership built on Irish market insight and German engineering.
The news comes as Local Power marks 10 years in business, a decade spent delivering renewable energy for homes, businesses and farms across Ireland. It also marks 10 years of partnership between Local Power and SOLARWATT, a relationship that has grown from day one into the collaboration behind SOLARWATT Farm.
SOLARWATT Farm didn't take the top prize. Even so, reaching the final recognises what the collaboration can deliver for Irish farmers.
Built from experience on the farm
Farms use energy very differently from homes or offices. On a dairy farm, milk cooling, water heating and vacuum pumps create large, time-critical loads concentrated around milking.
Without smart management, a farm exports surplus solar when production peaks, then buys power back from the grid when demand rises.
Local Power saw this problem again and again on Irish farms. It brought SOLARWATT a simple question: could SOLARWATT's intelligent energy management be adapted to a working farm? Working with SOLARWATT's product and engineering teams, it became SOLARWATT Farm.
From generating energy to managing it
SOLARWATT Farm connects glass-glass solar modules, Inverter vision, Battery vision storage and the Solarwatt Manager in one ecosystem.
Using forecasting and intelligent controls, it coordinates solar, storage and farm loads such as water heating, ice-builders, milk cooling and EV charging. Farmers use more of the power they generate and rely less on the grid at peak times.
Each system is matched to the farm's energy profile and to ESB Networks' maximum import capacity requirements. Battery vision can be scaled up as demand grows.
The shift: from simply generating renewable electricity to actively managing how and when it is used.
Irish insight, German engineering
Local Power brings close knowledge of Irish customers and agriculture. SOLARWATT brings engineering, product development and manufacturing expertise from Dresden. The two companies renewed their multi-year partnership at Intersolar Europe in Munich in June 2026.
SOLARWATT shares its principal ownership with BMW Group and has long championed a connected energy ecosystem spanning solar, storage, e-mobility and intelligent energy management. As farms electrify, that joined-up approach matters more than ever.
Delivered locally
BHC Distributors, a SOLARWATT Premium Partner GOLD distributor and partner of SOLARWATT for more than 10 years, makes sure SOLARWATT technology is available across Ireland.
Together, the three partners, working side by side for more than a decade, provide a complete route from German engineering, through Irish distribution and installation, to the farm gate.
Looking ahead
As farms add solar, batteries, EVs and other electric equipment, intelligent energy management will be key to cutting costs and getting the most from home-grown power.
We're proud to be finalists. But the real achievement is the collaboration behind it: an idea born on Irish farms, engineered with SOLARWATT and delivered locally with BHC Distributors.
SOLARWATT. Powering A Better Tomorrow
