Solar energy: why use solar panels

Use panels
solar on the ground
it becomes a
economic advantage,
ecological and institutional:
improve the
productivity and reduced
final consumption in the
electricity bill

How can an agricultural establishment provide energy on an ongoing basis while reducing the cost of the electricity bill? Enjoy solar energy. With an installed and strategically fixed panel, you can distribute the energy you need for proper operation within a production plant, which will bring you benefits.

Distributed energy is essential for the producer: each user generates his own energy, at home or in his rural establishment, to then sell the surplus in a network, then observe in the rate card how the value of this input is calculated energy. This idea of ​​venturing with solar panels was born from a pilot project in a breeding field.

This is the case of Solar station "L & # 39; dawn": A self-powered solar energy factory located in the city of Tres Arroyos, in the province of Buenos Aires, has become today a model establishment for agricultural production and livestock farming.

Super terrain He spoke with Oscar Toledo, Energy system, who has been working for more than 15 years in the implementation of solar energy in Argentina. And this year, with the national company QMAX, has launched the first red injection plant using solar panels in rural areas with optimal and sustainable results in electricity.

PRODUCER Marco Favini, an agricultural producer from Italy, presented this sustainable idea to develop in his field. So, "L & # 39; dawn" It has become the first model solar power station in the country to install a distributed network. Today, the station generates 70,000 watts a day. According to Favini, this limit was established because "It is still a pilot test of the rural network, it will check its behavior during the year, and despite the fact that we still have no law, the power plant is working with the protocols it needs to properly use solar energy. "

At La Aurora, wintering and quality meat production are intended for export and Canary Island, with an interesting production in terms of margins. As for the breeding, they have cows for the winter, but decided to enlarge this field to produce more. Although the margins are minimal, this gives them the guarantee of continuing to compete with the quality and genetics expected by the market. "Oscar Toledo advised us on the distributed energy incursion. This decision allowed us to generate our own energy and distribute the surplus to a network with equipment. The investment for the factory, which we realized with Banco Nación, was intended for the production of energy up to 70% for our annual needs.closed

The owner of Station "La Aurora", He said the cattle establishment had several reforms a while ago. This involved the expansion of the silo plant, with more sheds and now with more solar panels. Of the original 800 hectares, they now own 1,400 of their own farms in Tres Arroyos. In the future, the idea is to reach an additional 2,000 hectares to complete the activities, which will be exactly 3,000 with its own administration. This gives them an important image of sustainability and sustaining production because they are big exporters of meat.

SAVINGS The project involves providing uninterrupted power and reducing consumption. "The rural line that provided energy to the establishment has suffered frequent cuts, complicating the development of production in the locality.This resulted in a suspension of work and economic losses. , a system was designed with network equipment, which injects energy into the grid and reduces electricity consumption "said Toledo. On the other hand, DC coupled off-grid equipment generated an isolated network
avoid voltage problems or power outages for the consumption of the rural facility.

The solar station provides continuous energy to areas powered with this system, for example, the company's headphones, staff houses, the shipping system with electronic scales, air conditioners , machine tools, water pumps to power homes and even animal drinkers.

ENERGY. To advance the project, a 12 kWp photovoltaic generator was installed. The solar panels are based on a support designed to be used as a roof.

"Two were installed chargers that maintain two deep-cycle battery banks with T2 technology, which store 420 Ah @ C20 at 48 V, from which the inverters are powered in three-phase configuration. They provide a stabilized power supply to the electrical equipment of the establishment. They have a constant consumption per phase of 2100 W and peaks of 3300 W ", Said Toledo. A PC has been added with a control application in which producers remotely monitor and detect anomalies in the equipment.

WHY USE SOLAR PANELS

-Reduce the use of 80% generator set decrease fuel consumption and provide more hours of energy without noise. Only the generator on days when solar energy does not to be enough.

–It can be installed in any country house, farm, estancia or barn. It is used to extract water, to illuminate a whole house, watch TV, have two refrigerators lit, electric kettle and hand tools.

A real case

– A 4.5-liter generator 5 hours a day to power a home with a low power consumption can consume 1,350 W / day, an average of 270 W during the 5 hours of operation of the generator.

-The average consumption is 6% of the capacity of the generator and goes up to 20%. If the solar panel and battery pack installed at La Aurora are added to this system, all devices can be used and only the electronics group can be activated one hour per day or after several cloudy or windy days.

By Ángeles Ruiz for Super CAMPO.