Solar power your farm

Solar power for farms in remote regions is a viable option because they do not have direct access to grid-fed electricity.
It becomes for viable to use solar power because there is usually a very high cost to get grid-fed electricity to the farm which is for the farm owners account. And the cost of electricity is then supplied at a much higher route than that for urban areas

Solar panels as part of solar power system on farm

So, when doing your sums, you will find that your return on investment for solar power is much shorter and there-after, virtually free power.

Most farms will access: water from a borehole, river or dam.
The best way to provide power to pump the water from the supply to your water tanks is with an independent solar powered pump system.
The solar powered water pump system has its own array of solar panels, controller device and specifically designed solar pump
The cost of such a system ‘is determined’ by:
• the depth of the well(head)
• the total lift (in metres) to the water tank.
• The total number of litres of water required daily

Then there is the main farmhouse itself
In the farmhouse, it is usually best to make use of wood, coal, or gas stoves for cooking.
Hot water, too, is usually supplied by wood, coal, or gas. One can look at the option of a solar geyser which uses the heat from the sun to warm the water running through special heating solar panels.

For all your other electrical requirements like lighting, TV, computers, fridges, microwaves and washing machines, you would then look at a solar powered system comprising of an array of solar panels (photovoltaic panels) with a suitable sized bank of batteries and regulators and a power inverter.
solar powered system To calculate your total requirement click here to go to our solar calculator solar-power-calculator.htm

A typical solar powered system for a farm house would comprise of the following components:

• 6 x 80W 12V solar panels
• 2 x 20A 12/24V solar regulators with LCD
• 8 x 102A 12V Calcium deep cycle batteries
• 1 x 3000W 24V true sine wave inverter
• 6 x roof mount solar panel brackets
• Battery cabling, solar panel flex and connectors
• Installation costs 

Possible extras/additions:

• 1 x 8A 24V Intelligent battery charger
• 4 x 102A 12V Calcium batteries
• Some wall sockets 16A 3 pin
• 1 x 100m 3 core power cable
• 1 x 5.5KW petrol or Diesel generator

So you see that a solar powered system using solar panels is a feasable and realistic option for supplying power to your farm.