Alternative management strategies for a farm utilizing a solar powered irrigation system

Published in 1979

Substitutes for conventional energy inputs will become more important as conventional energy inputs undergo variable price increases. Solar energy is one possible substitute for conventional energy.inputs used in various farm activities. A representative farm for Pinal County, Arizona, is developed using information obtained from interviews with Pinal County farmers. A solar irrigation system is modeled into the representative farm. The solar irrigation system provides power to operate three wells on the representative farm. Alternative management strategies are analyzed for the representative farm. The alternatives include: (1) a non-solar farm; (2) using conventional and solar power for irrigation and allowing excess solar power to be sold to the local utility; (3) using conventional and solar power for irrigation with no selling of excess solar power to the local utility; (4) using solar power only for irrigation with no selling of excess solar power to the local utility; and '(5) using solar power only for irrigation but allowing excess solar power to be sold to the local utility. Net returns above variable costs are compared for each management alternative. The results show that net returns are increased when both conventional and solar power are used compared to returns for the non-solar farm alternative alone

AZU_TD_BOX192_E9791_1979_66.pdf (3.8 MB)

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