Solar powered agricultural irrigation pumping. Technical report, 1 June, 1976-28 February, 1979

Technical Report · Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5962904

Abernathy, G H; Mancini, T R

A solar-powered irrigation pumping system was designed and installed at Willard, New Mexico. The system incorporated an east-west oriented field of parabolic trough solar collectors to heat oil. The hot oil in turn heated freon which drove a high-speed turbine connected to the irrigation pump. Design of the system has been completed and all components have been installed and are operative at this time. Technical delays prevented the collection of operation and maintenance data to date, but under a new contract with Sandia Laboratories it is expected that this will be accomplished during the 1979 irrigation season. In conjunction with the solar pump, agricultural experiments were conducted by New Mexico State University. These included drip irrigation of typical food crops that could be grown in the area. Using drip irrigation, yields were 10 to 15 percent greater than would be expected on typical farms in the Estancia area. Water use was about one-half that needed with the normal flood system of irrigation.

• Research Organization: New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces (USA). New Mexico Energy Inst.
• OSTI ID: 5962904
• Report Number(s): NMEI-31
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
IRRIGATION
SOLAR WATER PUMPS
SOLAR HEAT ENGINES
DESIGN
CROPS
INSTALLATION
MAINTENANCE
NEW MEXICO
OPERATION
PARABOLIC TROUGH COLLECTORS
WATER REQUIREMENTS
CONCENTRATING COLLECTORS
ENGINES
HEAT ENGINES
NORTH AMERICA
PARABOLIC COLLECTORS
PUMPS
SOLAR COLLECTORS
SOUTHWEST REGION
USA
WATER PUMPS
140909* - Solar Thermal Utilization- Miscellaneous Solar Applications- (1980-)