Solar pumps replacing windmills on U.S. prairie
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 05:16PM A new breed of renewable energy technology is displacing the iconic windmills that have pumped well water on prairie rangeland in the U.S. for more than a century.
A windmill for pumping well water is seen on farmland in Alameda County, Calif. (Ben Margot/Associated Press)
The mechanical metal and wood windmills have pumped life into North American ranches and farms for 150 years, their function withstanding rural electrification in remote locations beyond the reach of power lines.
These days, however, an increasing number of Western ranchers are pulling down their old windmills and converting to solar-powered systems.
"They are displacing windmills every day," said Scott Blakeley, owner of Pronghorn Pump and Repair in Glenrock, Wyo., as he travelled to a July installation job on a ranch southwest of Casper, Wyo.
"Primarily because of the mechanical problems that you have. You fix one issue on a windmill today, something else is broke tomorrow. And in August, when you need water the most, the wind blows the least in Wyoming, and in most Western states."
Ranchers use windmills and other pump systems to open more land for grazing by drawing well water for livestock to drink in areas without surface water. Blakeley, who has also installed solar pump equipment in Utah, Montana and Colorado, said the solar segment of his business grows by about 35 per cent per year.
Solar pumps come of age
Solar-powered pumps have been available for more than 20 years, but their efficiency and durability have recently improved to the point that many ranchers are at least considering the solar option when they need to replace an old windmill or drill a new well.
The cost of solar pumps varies widely, typically running from $4,500 to more than $10,000. That often exceeds the typical windmill replacement or repair cost of about $5,000.
Stand-alone well systems are useful in remote areas where it would be too expensive to extend a power line, a project that costs at least $10,000 a mile (1.6 km) in rugged terrain. When possible, tying into a power line is considered the best option because of the reliability and strength of the power source.
"If [windmills] are working and meeting the needs of the farm, there's not a reason to go change it," said Mike Morris, farm energy team leader for the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.
"But when it breaks and you have to do something different, I would think that if you're far from power, solar is going to be extremely competitive if not the best option in many or most cases."
Two of the main benefits of solar wells are their durability and reliability, Morris said. They normally require less upkeep and break down less often than windmills, which include more moving parts that can wear out.
Ranchers using solar wells can accommodate cloudy days by building tanks big enough to hold several days' worth of water for their livestock, Morris said. Solar pumps are popular across the country, but are most relevant in the West, he said.
"In the West, it's much more common to be far from power," he said. "In the Midwest or East, very often where you need the water, you might be within a quarter mile of power. In that situation, really, there is no reason economically to go with solar."
Despite the solar trend, windmills are unlikely to disappear from the landscape. Many ranches that have relied on windmills for generations have the know-how and equipment to keep their windmills operating.
For Randy Marton, the Wyoming sheep and cattle rancher who hired Blakeley to replace his broken windmill with a solar pump this month, the new well's $4,500 cost was worth it. His ranch has converted its windmills to solar and drilled a new solar-powered well over the past few years, he said.
Marton, 58, said windmill repair workers are hard to find and maintenance costs are expensive.
"If you look at the average age of ranchers in Wyoming, they're all getting to be about my age or older — they're not going to crawl up these windmills anymore," said Marton.
"They want things that are reliable, that they can go off and do something else, because there's far less help on these ranches than there used to be and very few young guys left."
Source: CBC News
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