Applications of wind energy in agriculture.

1. Akshay Kumar
Chandrashekhar G
Gurupadayya S
Jana Rajeev
Group Members
POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS OF WIND
SYSTEMS FOR AGRICULTURE PURPOSE

2. CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Benefits of wind system for former
3. Possible applications
 Wind water pump
 Electricity generation from wind turbine
 Grinding grains and legumes using windmills
4. Conclusion and References

3. INTRODUCTION
Wind energy is a renewable energy source available at the free of cost. Wind
power is the fastest growing energy source in the world. This energy can be used for
agriculture purpose. From irrigation pivots and processing equipment to simple
heating and lighting applications.
Wind energy can be utilized as generation of electrical energy and farmer
use this energy for pumping of water and for many purposes. Wind turbines may be
employed individually, but are often installed in groups to form “wind farms” or “wind
power plants”.
Agricultural wind power-key benefits are lowest cost of energy, security
against escalating electricity costs, reduced carbon footprint. Using wind energy
reduces the environmental impact of generating electricity because it requires no fuel
and does not produce pollution or greenhouse gases.

4. HOW THE WIND SYSTEM BENEFIT FORMER
Farmers and ranchers are in a unique position to benefit from the growth in
the wind industry. To tap this market, farmers can lease land to wind developers, use
the wind to generate power for their farms, or become wind power producers
themselves.
Farmers and ranchers can generate their own power from the wind. Small
wind generators, ranging from 400 watts to 40 kilowatts or more, can meet the needs
of an entire farm or can be targeted to specific applications.
When the turbine produces less than the farm is using, the meter spins
forward, as it normally does. At the end of the month or year, the farmer pays for the
net consumption or the electric company pays for the net production. Wind power
plant owners make rent payments to the farmer or rancher for the use of the
land providing land owners with additional income.

5. POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS
The important applications are as follows
1. Wind water pump.
2. Electricity generation from wind turbine.
3. Grinding grains and legumes using wind mills.

6. WIND WATER PUMP
Wind water pumping technology is one system, designed for pumping at
isolated locations in all climates without the restrictions and high costs associated with
traditional driven wind pumps. Wind turbine electricity generation can be used to
raise the living standard of rural dwellers by improving agricultural productivity.
Wind turbine has significant benefit in the areas where there is a shorter
rainy season and hence demand for pumped water. After installing wind turbine water
pumps in a farm, one can raise higher value crops throughout the year and also supply
water to the livestock. There is the requirement of appropriate training for the local
farmers to use wind turbine based water pump irrigation. At present, mostly fossil fuel
powered water pumps are used in the farms. However, very few wind-powered water
pumps are installed in the world.

7. Typical Windmill Water Pump

8. The blades of the windmill wheel catch the wind—just like the sails on a
sailboat—which turns the wheel (rotor). The wheel is attached to a shaft by long
arms. The shaft has small pinion gears at the other end, inside a gearbox. The
pinion gears drive larger bull gears, which move pitman arms. The pitman arms
push a sliding yoke up and down, above the bull gears (much like a crankshaft,
connecting rod, and piston in a standard vehicle engine). The moving yoke lifts and
drops the pump rod to do the work down below.
The pump rod goes down the tower through a watertight seal at the top of
the well’s drop pipe, and to the pump cylinder, the part that moves the water. The
cylinder is attached to the bottom of the drop pipe below the water level, and has a
simple piston and two check valves.
Working

9. As the piston rises, water moves up the pipe above it. At the same time,
water is sucked through a screen and the lower check valve below the piston, into the
lower section of the pump cylinder. When the pump rod reverses and begins to
descend, the lower check valve closes and the piston check valve opens. This allows
water in the cylinder to pass through, and the water that is trapped above the piston
to be pushed up out of the cylinder and ultimately to its final delivery height. One
might think of the pump as a cup with a trap door in the bottom that opens when the
cup falls and shuts when the cup rises. This cycle is constantly repeated as the wind
wheel turns to move the pump rod up and down.
If the wind wheel is moving, the pump piston is moving. As the wind speed
increases, the speed and frequency of the piston stroke increases, so more water is
pumped. But the windmill’s efficiency drops because the airfoil is not optimized for
higher wind speeds—it doesn’t make as much use of the cubic effect of wind power
as a wind generator does. (The power available in the wind is proportional to the
cube of the wind speed.) But then, water needs do not increase in proportion to the
wind speed either, so this is not a major impediment. In fact, water pumpers do the
job they are designed for efficiently and well.
Working Contd…

10. ELECTRICITY GENERATION
FROM WIND TURBINE

11. The demand for electricity is growing with the increase in population,
especially in rural areas which are not connected to the electrical grid. Therefore,
provision of electricity to the remote rural communities can be made cheaply at the
start from a wind power system as compared with other options, e.g. extension of
grid power lines or other types of fossil fuel which are hard to transport due to poor
road networks to the rural communities.
Wind energy needs to be promoted first to the farms which are in great
need of electricity to contribute significant improvement in the crop yield from
agriculture. Small, highly efficient wind turbines can be installed in rural farms. The
cost of installing one wind turbine is close to that of putting up electrical poles,
overhead power lines and other equipment necessary to connect to the electrical
grid. The advantage is that the farm owner owns the generating equipment and is
freed from paying monthly electrical bills.

12. GRINDING GRAINS AND LEGUMES USING
WINDMILLS

13. Wind energy can be used for grinding grains and legumes. Long before
the invention of electricity, early wind turbines did very useful work for grinding.
Windmills were used in many places in Europe over the last several centuries to
turn heavy granite disks called millstones. The millstones were used to crush dry
grains such as wheat, barley and corn to make flour or meal. This technique can be
applied on farms for production of flour.
Working
A windmill uses simple but effective concepts to perform its job . In a
smock mill, sails are designed similar to airplane propellers to catch the wind and
spin. The sails drive the horizontal "wind shaft" and the "brake wheel" located in
the top of the mill. The brake wheel spins another wheel called the "wallower"
located at the top of the vertical "main spindle." The "great spur wheel" at the
bottom of the main spindle engages a "stone nut" which turns the
millstones through the "stone spindle.“
The Prairie Mills Windmill has four levels or "floors". The "meal floor" is
at ground level and is where the ground flour is collected and sacked. The "stone
floor" is where the millstones are located. The "sack hoist floor" houses most of
the operating mechanism and is where grain is loaded into holding bins. The "cap
floor" houses the wind shaft (what the "sails" are connected to), the brake wheel,
the wallower, and the mill brake.

14. The Prairie Mills Windmill has three sets of millstones. Each set consists of
a bed stone (on the bottom) and a runner stone (on the top). The bed stone is fixed
on the meal floor and the runner stone rotates above it. The spacing between the
runner stone and bed stone largely determines the quality of the flour. Different
millstones were probably used to grind specific types of grain.. For example, one set
may be used for milling buckwheat, a soft grain with a high oil content. Others
would be used to mill harder wheat, rye, oats or corn. However, the windmill could
only turn one set of millstones.
The "cap floor" is the top of the windmill. It houses the brake wheel, brake,
and wind shaft on which the sails are attached. The "cap" can rotate in any
direction.
Millers use a "winder" system to turn the cap and the sails into the wind. A
miller uses the "capstan wheel" and a "winding chain" to wind the sails. The "stage"
on the outside of the mill tower provides anchor points for the chain. Although the
total weight of the cap, sails, and mechanism exceeds 20 tons (40,000 pounds), one
miller can normally turn the cap.

15. 1.www.centreforenergy.com/about energy
2. www.windworldindia.com
3.www.epsenergy.com/wind_generation.asp
4.www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/smart-energy-solution
5.www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy
6.www.ironmanwindmill.com
7.energy.gov/energy saver
8.www.agr.gc.ca/eng/home
9.www.indianwindpower.com
10. www.edfenergy.com/energy
Wind energy is a green energy and there is no pollution to the atmosphere, no
fuel required to run the windmill and maintenance cost is less. It is renewable source
of energy ,hence it can be useful in agriculture field. Harnessing this type of energy
affordable for the formers in local areas.
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES