Smart Agriculture: An Off-Grid Renewable Energy System for Farms using Wind Power and Energy Storage

Abstract

Renewable energy systems have been used in many areas. However, little attention has been paid to investigating off-grid renewable systems for farming. In this project, wind power and energy storage are used to design a realistic renewable energy system to supply power to an average California farm. The system provides clean wind energy for typical household appliances and farming purposes such as irrigation. A scaled-down prototype of the system is implemented for validation of the theoretical design. The design calculation and validation results show that the renewable energy system is capable to supply sufficient power to the farm, independently from utility power grid. Some valuable experiences are obtained regarding selection and operation of the prototype components.