Electricity purchases can represent a significant portion of operational costs for Colorado agricultural operations. Three areas for hydropower potential related to agriculture were identified: 1) on-farm pressurized irrigation systems 2) conduit drops on ditch systems and 3) existing agricultural dams. Both the technical potential and the economic potential of each type of hydropower were evaluated to quantify the amount of untapped resource that...

The ACRE grant program has funded 56 projects since its inception in 2007. These projects span many areas of renewable energy (RE) including: anaerobic digestion (biogas), biochar, biofuels, biomass combustion, energy efficiency, energy storage, micro-hydro, solar, and wind. These projects have successfully fulfilled ACRE's mission of: 1) advancing knowledge in the area of RE within the agriculture industry in CO; 2) funding a variety of projects...

The primary goal of this project is to provide agricultural producers the best energy storage solution that will maximize the benefits of generating their own energy from various renewable energy systems. Without an energy storage device, producers are forced to sell their renewable energy at very low prices to their utility and then have to buy energy from the utility at a much higher rate. The ideal storage system will provide a producer the option...

A new method of storing electrical energy in an agricultural setting for irrigation application has been analyzed. System design analysis, modeling methods, operation reviews, and aquifer hydrogeology research demonstrates that this is a feasible method for storing energy on-site.