Recipient Organization
Taber International, LLC
9900 Rosewood Drive
Chardon,OH 44024
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This grant presents and opportunity to address significant problems involving farms and sustainable energy. Through the optimal matching, distribution and integration of photovoltaic (PV) solar panel systems into pastures and rangeland farm income could be nearly doubled. There is the potential to have all energy needs (transportation, electrical, heating) of the US met. (ref. 19, 25). The primary obstacles include integrating solar panels in a synergistic manner versus an either/or choice for farmers on use of pasture or rangeland. As grasslands utilize 2-3% of incoming solar radiation, over a fairly narrow range of frequencies and solar cells can convert other frequencies of radiation directly into electrical energy, the two should be compatible on the same acreage, resulting in increased income per acre and a product (electricity) that does not need to be produced elsewhere. By modeling the interplay of the spatial distribution of solar panels producing electricity and there impact on pasture and cow productivity we believe we can generate scenarios where farms are net-zero energy or even energy plus. In semi-arid climates we believe there can also be significant benefit in the reduction in water usage.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This grant if successful should make a good business case for starting to embed renewable energy into the fabric of small farms, many of which exist in the rural communities of the U.S. By tapping into the $1 trillion/year energy market, substantial income can be generated in these communities, without detracting from current income sources. Jobs related to solar use similar skill sets to those existing in farm communities so that the technology can be readily adapted if the financial incentives make sense. Other goals include demonstration of a potentially large savings in water usage, especially on the lands that would receive the most solar energy. Increasing farm productivity through enhanced water and energy usage. An important sub goal is the creation of a energy management system that is cost effective for monitoring energy usage and easily intergrates into an active control of energy usage. The technology developed would be cross cutting and apply to many other industries and potenatilly even the household level energy usage.
Project Methods
Technical Objective 1) One technical objective is to install a small set of set solar panels configured as shade for cows. To collect data on soil moisture, pasture health, grazing patterns, milk production, and water consumption by the cows (no irrigation is used on the planned test plots). A second pasture will be maintained for cows as a control using the current configuration used for the cows. Data from the second pasture will be taken for the same parameters identified above. The actual parameter list is flexible to account for additional items that may come up as important to modeling optimal configurations. This data will be used to create a model that will be used in Phase II for distributing sufficient panels to create a net-zero farms. In addition, the data will be used to lay a foundation for expected changes in farm productivity. Technical Objective 2) The second objective is to test a method for monitoring power at many discrete locations throughout the farm and bringing that into a central information management system. This requires development of a wireless sensor/transmitter for detecting power usage and a software algorithm to process the wireless data into a map of energy usage for the farm, that has sufficient accuracy to be used in a Phase II automation. Commercially, the goal is to have the software with at integrated modeling and predictive control technologies for whole- control at or below the cost of a MicroSoft operating system (<$400/farm), thereby minimizing the economic barrier to adoption of energy optimization. The individual devices for detecting power flow show have a cost near that of a standard wall socket. Technical Objective 3) The third object is to complete an energy balance on the total farm, looking at all potential energy sources (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, etc.) with a focus on the use of solar for Phase II, but the benefits of all forms in a Phase III effort. The energy balance would set general parameters for the Phase II energy management system enabling a program to increase the energy efficiency of the farm. The energy management system interaction with Smart Grid technology would likely be left to a Phase III effort. . The three objectives would be tied together describing the implementation in Phase II of net zero farms and a Phase III effort for energy plus farms.