Reading Time: 3 minutes An early adopter of using solar power to operate irrigation equipment says after several years, he’s convinced the system is a win for farmers.
Alberta irrigators put power of the sun to work
Harnessing solar energy for irrigation in southern Alberta
Sheep grazing under solar panels help US farmers to survive crop-price slump
As U.S. farmers grapple with soaring debt and slumping incomes, some crop producers are trading their tractors for flocks of sheep, and starting up solar grazing businesses to help make ends meet.
How farmers can use solar power without damaging the rest of their operation
Agrivoltaics can mitigate a main criticism of solar power - that it wastes farmland
One approach to decarbonizing the agricultural sector is agrivoltaics. It involves integrating solar panels; or photovoltaics (PVs); into fields of crops, greenhouses and livestock areas, which can help farmers reduce their carbon footprint while continuing to produce food.
Solar dry, soldier fly, AI: Africans fight hunger with innovation
Alongside container farms in South Africa cultivating soldier flies for animal feed, solar-powered fish and crop dryers in Tanzania and machine-learning pest detectors in Kenya, Africans are coming up with innovative solutions to overcome the effects of climate change on food production.
Province’s renewable energy industry will cause little threat to agriculture or the environment
Renewable energy development will result in less than one per cent of agricultural land loss by 2041, said the Alberta Utilities Commission report
Reading Time: 2 minutes The province’s booming renewables industry will not be a threat to Alberta’s agricultural or environmental industries, said a report released by the Alberta Utilities Commission. If all renewable development locates on (some of Alberta’s best) land, the percentage of agricultural land loss is estimated to be less than one per cent by 2041, said the […] Read more
Schoepp: Putting solar farms on good land is a misguided way to go green
The amount of arable land is finite and shrinking. Covering it with panels that could soon be obsolete is wrong
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farms hold promise for generating biofuel and clean biogas to power us into the future, and they also have the land base for building energy systems. But there is a vast difference between the capture of methane on site to produce gas and the permanent use of food production land for solar panels or wind […] Read more
THE NEW ENERGY BOOM: The sun is shining on Alberta’s solar industry
Every sector of Alberta’s solar energy industry is seeing strong demand — including from agriculture
Reading Time: 6 minutes Alberta may be oil and gas country, but right now, another natural resource is booming in the province — solar energy. “Alberta is by far the fastest-growing solar market in Canada right now,” said Nicholas Gall, director of distributed energy resources for the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. “Large corporate buyers — companies like Amazon, Budweiser, […] Read more
Interest in solar remains strong, but subsidies in doubt
It’s not clear whether the new government will axe subsidies, but producers still drawn to solar workshops
Reading Time: 4 minutes Are provincial subsidies for on-farm grid-tied solar projects dead? And if they are dead, does that mean solar and other renewable energy projects have gone the way of the dodo as well? It would be hard to fault anyone for answering ‘Yes’ to both questions. While on the campaign trail in February, now-premier, Jason Kenney […] Read more
Dry grain while the sun shines — harnessing solar power for drying grain
Robert Baerg has gained some peace of mind with novel grain dryer
Reading Time: 6 minutes Robert Baerg was having coffee with a neighbour one rainy harvest about 15 years ago when they got to talking about their old grain dryer. It was a real headache, that dryer — chewing through horsepower to dry tough grain far too slowly, and then they still had to cool it. It took both neighbours […] Read more
Family of goat lovers lives off the grid
Family uses mainly solar power and a wind turbine while raising goats, free-range chickens, turkeys, geese, and hogs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Kids abound at Will O’ the Wisp Paddocks. Amy Leitch and husband Kevin have four of their own, along with numerous goat kids in their flock of 77 goats. “We chose Kiko goats which are from New Zealand. They’re bred from the best of the best and this is a breed that is known worldwide,” […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
