Economics Of Solar Energy Use In Agriculture

Power is considered to be a core industry as it facilitates development across various sectors of the Indian economy, such as manufacturing, agriculture, commercial enterprises and railways. Keeping this into account, Govt. of India right from the inception of the first five year plan period has given special emphasis for its development. Whereas, Solar power has gained immense importance over the last 5 years as the world moves towards clean energy sources to reduce the negative impact on the environment and to reduce dependence on the limited reserves of coal and gas.Agriculture is the sole provider of human food. Most farm machines are driven by fossil fuels, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, accelerate climate change. Such environmental damage can be mitigated by the promotion of renewable resources such as solar, wind, biomass, tidal, geo-thermal, small-scale hydro, bio-fuels and wave-generated power. These renewable resources have a huge potential for the agriculture industry. The farmers should be encouraged by subsidies to use renewable energy technology. The concept of sustainable agriculture lies on a delicate balance of maximizing crop productivity and maintaining economic stability, while minimizing the utilization of finite natural resources and detrimental environmental impacts. Hence, there is a need for promoting use of renewable energy systems for sustainable agriculture, e.g. solar photovoltaic water pumps and electricity, greenhouse technologies, solar dryers for post-harvest processing, and solar hot water heaters.

This book contains up-to-date studies on the economics of sustainable energy in agriculture. The studies focus on energy efficiency improvement and the use of biomass. Specific attention is paid to the economic aspects of land use and the competition for land, both for food production and dedicated energy crops. The book will be of special interest to economists, agronomists, energy experts, and politicians that deal with energy issues in agriculture, both in developing and industrialised countries. The book is relevant for those who are interested in the topic of global warming and carbon sequestration, and the transition towards carbon-free energy resources.

In its continuing efforts to improve production and storage , European agriculture and food industry consumes ever more energy. Hence, as was the case for all European sectors founded on intensive energy consump tion, agriculture was also severely affected by the shortages and price increases of conventional energy sources over the past decade. The energy consciousness generated in this way led to a widespread con sideration of the application of other, renewable energy sources. The potential applications in agriculture are, however, extremely diverse, and this explains to a great extent the fragmentary nature and even in some cases the mediocre level of current research. The objective of this book is, therefore, to guide the reader in a syste matic way through the apparent chaos of operational data which are currently available on the subject matter: thermal applications within agriculture of solar energy by means of solar collectors, passive designs and storage devices. While in volume I of this series H this area is assessed from a more general economic perspective, this tome II takes a more detailed technical approach. The results of this book were produced in the form of a European concerted action under the leadership of the Commission in Brussels. All possible data were collected by national representatives in the EC member countries. Coordinators were Professor V. Goedseels and Mr E. Van der Stuyft from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Professor G.

Energy and agriculture are both extremely broad subjects and their interactions - the subject of this book - cover almost the full spectrum of the agricultural sciences. Yet the subject is a relatively new one whose importance first received widespread recognition barely a decade ago, following the dramatic increase in oil prices during 1973. The impact of this increase was such as to promote a world-wide debate on the future direction that agriculture should take. This debate was, and is, of particular concern in countries where agriculture plays a leading role in economic and social development. During the last half century many national agricultural systems have been transformed from almost closed, self-sufficient systems with few locally produced inputs geared to satisfy local requirements, to intensive, open systems, utilizing large quantities of energy-rich inputs such as fossil fuel for manufactured agro-chemicals, water distribution and imported animal feedstuffs to produce a range of sophisticated products, often for export, which in tum require many energy-rich inputs for their marketing. This industrialization of agriculture has proved to be very successful in many respects and indeed was accepted as a general model for agricultural development allowing increased productivity and efficiency per unit land, labor and water, even in areas with limited natural resources.

This is the 4th volume in an international energy reference book series aimed at bringing together, in a concise form, the basic principles and the most relevant data concerning both the efficient use of energy in agriculture and the food industry and alternative energy sources for agriculture. The theme of this volume is solar energy applications in agriculture. Since the 1960's the major industrial nations have faced an energy crisis; there is a realisation that fossil fuels exist in finite quantitities. In the 1970's and 80's, deposits of CO 2 in the atmosphere have increased, arguably resulting in an increase in global warming. Utilisation of solar energy could contribute to the improvement of man's standard of living while helping to decrease the potential for disasterous earth warming. The application of solar energy in agriculture is, in the main, environmentally benign. The purpose of this volume is to assist the solar energy system designer in understanding the principles of solar energy, to provide conceptual designs which are useful as application examples, and to provide specific equations and data for the design of specific applications.