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Solar Irrigation.JPG 17.27K
0 downloadsWell it’s not exactly a new idea. Farmers using solar energy to power irrigation systems. We have seen these stories from places like India, Africa, and South America and so on, but wait what about here in the United States.
In the mid 1970’s during the second OPEC oil embargo the USDA sponsored pilot studies on using solar energy to power irrigation systems. Then oil prices dropped, and everyone promptly forgot the whole idea.
Then in February 2013 an article in Energy Management Today caught our attention.
Nebraska Pilots PV to Power Irrigation Systems.
http://www.energyman...systems-089433/
The Nebraska Public Power District has launched a test program to use solar energy to provide electricity for center pivot irrigation systems.
The pilot project would use solar PV panels that can generate up to 25 kW of electricity. The newspaper says most center pivots need 25-125 horsepower to run the irrigation systems (25 kW equals about 25 horsepower).
Currently, the state’s largest electric utility powers more than 30,000 center pivots with electricity, propane or diesel fuel. It wants to install PV panels on about a tenth of an acre near a center pivot to test the equipment.
According to the groundwater.org 40 percent of the world’s food supply is grown on irrigated cropland, and center pivot systems increase water efficiency by about 85-95 percent.
Some 42,000 center pivots now irrigate about 63 percent of the 8 million acres of irrigated farmland in Nebraska, reports a Groundwater Foundation.
The utility’s sets a goal to achieve 10 percent of its energy for NPPD’s native load from renewable sources by 2020.
Well apparently someone was listening because a few weeks ago we got this story in our inbox.
Farmer Powers Irrigation System With Solar Energy
WHITING, Iowa (AP) — Dolf Ivener turned to sunshine to water his corn field this growing season.
Ivener became the first Siouxland farmer to power a center pivot irrigation system with solar energy. It’s also one of the first of its kind nationally.
He designed a photovoltaic system based on the average 4.3 hours of daily sunlight the Sioux City region receives each season.
An array of 22 solar panels, measuring three feet by six feet, produce around 300 watts each, or 11,000 kilowatts to 12,000 kilowatts per year, enough power to pump water through the system’s pipes and propel its wheels around the field four times. That’s the average number of trips in a typical year for irrigated farmland like Ivener’s 160-acre tract southeast of Whiting, Iowa.
It cost $23,000, but a 30 percent federal tax credit and a 18 percent state tax credit is covering nearly half the costs. The credits, claimed through filing income tax returns, are designed to encourage solar power.
If everything works right, the payback on the solar system would be 10 years, he said.
Ivener estimates it would cost $50,000 to $60,000 to run traditional power lines to the center pivot.
Before installing the solar system, Ivener worked out a 10-year deal with Western Iowa Power Cooperative, or WIPCO, a rural electric coop that serves Monona and other eight counties. The coop installed a bidirectional electric meter in the field. It measures how much power the solar panels produce, as well as how much excess electricity the array feeds back to the coop.
“This year, I will end up producing too much power, and they will write me a check,” he said.
The solar-powered system has spurred numerous calls and field visits from commercial center pivot installers, Ivener said. Because the industry consists of large, highly competitive players, Ivener said he is not looking to market his solar know how to other farmers. But he is considering putting in a similar center pivot system next year at another field his family farms, near Hornick, Iowa.
http://www.kcrg.com/...energy-20140809
So time will tell if this type of center pivot irrigation systems powered by solar power catch on.
