Alternative Fuels

Solar Power

As energy prices increase and the need for electricity increases in remote locations, running electric lines may prove to be too costly. In these remote locations, one means of getting needed power for pumping water to crops or cattle may be above us all the time – the sun. To demonstrate the use of solar power for providing electricity, faculty of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department acquired funding from USDA-NRCS to install a solar system to power a pump to irrigate a small pecan orchard. The system was designed to provide water to 45 mature pecan trees and 15 immature pecan trees. It provided a flow rate of 40 gallons per minute of flow to the irrigation system feeding the pecan orchard. Interest in systems such as this has increased tremendously since installation of the solar system. Other pecan farmers have shown interest in similar systems, cattle farmers are interested in installing similar systems for watering purposes, and other small farmers are interested for areas of their farm where running electric lines would be costly and the uncertainty of liquid fuel costs causes concern. (2007)

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