Solar Panels for farms
Solar Panels for farms
(OP)
How much of a good idea do you think that solar panels are good to water the crops in a field?
I think its great as when it is sunny, the pv cell will generate enough power to water the crops, and when it is not sunny(possible raining) the fields would require less watering..
am i forgetting something? what are your ideas?
thanks and regards
Luke from malta(eu)
I think its great as when it is sunny, the pv cell will generate enough power to water the crops, and when it is not sunny(possible raining) the fields would require less watering..
am i forgetting something? what are your ideas?
thanks and regards
Luke from malta(eu)





RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
> Dust
> Other contaminants, like crop dusting
> Damage from farm equipment getting around the panels
> You'll need batteries to store the energy that need maintaining, since the power availability does not always correspond to watering schedules.
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RE: Solar Panels for farms
The huge solar farms in CA have special wash systems that clean the flectors with DISTILLED WATER as a film of calcium deposites will knock the effiency down.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
that is contradicting .. is better to put it on a house or in a farm?
than agian, its not that much of an option putting it on a house as it is to be used directly for farming, far away from houses..
regards
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
so, basically the pv cell has to be put up on the farm's roof to generate electricity for the water pump.
What I would like to know is what I have to take care of (and possibly how). For example things like dust etc.
thanks!
RE: Solar Panels for farms
Contrary to IRStuff's comment batteries are not typically used in a water pumping system. The water is pumped into a cistern or holding tank during that day, then drawn out as it is needed.
John
RE: Solar Panels for farms
good point..thanks
any more suggestions/problems that might be encountered?
RE: Solar Panels for farms
I've stated that you must clean the surface with distilled water to keep salts from building up. Since the panel must face the south and most places have winds from the south, you might keep this in mind so that you place it on the southside of a dirt road, not the north.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
How big is the field? Or
They still make these http://www.aermotorwindmill.com/Index.asp
The question is how far down in the water ( the head the pump will have meet) and how much water do you need. You can calculate the power you need and size your collectors.
What are you growing? A strorage tank and a drip system makes more sense in a solar powered irrigation system.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
Environmental Engineering is not an end unto itself.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
I manage an olive processing plant and our irrigation system is off the grid. We water about 6 acres of trees with pumps running off of a battery-PV system. The max output of the system is 3.6 kW and we have 8 deep discharge batteries that actually run everything to do with irrigation. I don't remember the total amp hours stored by the batteries, but it's enough to run the irrigation for about 3 days if the panels were to fault and not charge anymore.
Running a pump directly from a solar panel will indeed allow irrigation to regulate itself as far as how much water is pumped, depending on the insolation that it's recieving. However, depending on the crop and the actual temperature it may be too little or too much water, if you get heavy rain and then a sunny week after that you can add water on top of already saturated soil which could be bad (again, depending on your crop)
what is your irrigation method? what size area are you trying to irrigate? and what is your crop and what kind of pump are you trying to run? PV pumps usually only trickle water unless you have a large PV array and even then finding a DC pump that can handle the power fluctuation is going to be hard. This is the reason we use AC pumps and an inverter to power our irrigation.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
Correct solar panel sizing procedures include a 5 to 10% efficiency reduction for dust accumulation between rains. If you live in an area where rain is scarce and 10% efficiency reductions can be exceeded, they should be manually cleaned at that point. Natural rainfall will be sufficient for cleaning purposes except in the most extreme climates or immediately after plowing activities in the area.
I would want to have some relay that would deactivate the pump circuit at power outputs less than required for efficient pump operation. No point spinning equipment just to increase maintenance cost without getting a sufficient water flow to make it worthwhile.
I think crops can survive without batteries. Not many commercial solar irrigation pump packages come with batteries, so that should be pretty much indicitive of the lack of their necessity.
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"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, its what we know for sure" - Mark Twain
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
I really appreciate all the help
regards,
Luke
RE: Solar Panels for farms
Pat, you obviously don't understand my perhaps somewhat exadurated analogy. Should I scale it down for you? Would not pollution from a leaking valve, or single hull tankers, or unlined sedimentation ponds, or gasoline vapors escaping from vapor control systems be a very tangible easily understood example of those hard to define "costs" that most engineers would rather ignore until forced to recon with by the general public that is sick and tired of these kinds of attitudes??????
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"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, its what we know for sure" - Mark Twain
RE: Solar Panels for farms
I think that a solar charged battery and inverter system is a fine way to gain some independance from the grid. But if you have access to the grid, it is a hard decision to spend the money required to break away from it, and requires commitment to the maintenance.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
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I suggest all remaining myoptics reading this thread catch up on some news and have a read of this AIChE mag article here,
Grand Challenges for Engineering
Twentieth-century engineering enabled life as we know it. The National Academy of Engineering looks at what is needed in the future.
http
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"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, its what we know for sure" - Mark Twain
RE: Solar Panels for farms
RE: Solar Panels for farms
It may be fun and green to irrigate a crop with a solar power system but your own may be the only one you will do. Most people (especially real farmers who are in it to make a living. ) would rather spend the one dollar and keep the other one.
RE: Solar Panels for farms
There are more and more LEED-rated buildings going up all the time. LEED often involves additional costs. Turns out that in some peoples minds, there actually is a value associated with saving the environment, reducing global warming, etc -- a value they'd even cough up a few bucks to help pay for. Similarly, the Prius seems to be a pretty hot car right now, despite being more expensive than other non-hybrid cars (and even despite the environmentally ugly batteries that it contains).
I certainly agree that it would be unethical to "sneak" energy-saving ideas into a project without first discussing with the client. But I believe it is also unethical to assume that no rational client would ever pay for environmentally-friendly installations and to assume that no-one would ever find any merit in any sustainable design that had any additional financial cost associated with it.