Twitter headlines« Chrysler Cautions on US Diesel Expectations | Main | Cargill to Build New German Biodiesel Plant »
California Utilities Incent Farmers to Ditch Diesel for Electric Pumps
5 August 2005
Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison are rolling out incentive programs to persuade agricultural customers in California to switch from internal combustion engines (mostly fueled by diesel) to electric motors to power irrigation systems.
Under the program (Agricultural Internal Combustion Engine Program—AG-ICE), customers can apply to receive electricity rates reduced by 20% from the standard agricultural rate—a level intended to make electrical irrigation pumps competitive with diesel pumps if diesel fuel was priced at $1.15 a gallon. Given the current soaring price of diesel, this is now an even better bargain.
There also are incentives to help farmers run power lines to reach the pump sites.
The program, approved earlier this summer by the California Public Utilities Commission, specifies that growers must agree to destroy the engines to qualify for the incentive.
According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), there are approximately 5,700 internal-combustion engines in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys used for pumping water for agricultural purposes.
These engines contribute up to 33 tons per day of NOx, accounting for nearly 23% of the total NOx emissions from stationary fuel combustion sources in the region. In addition, CARB estimates that diesel pumps represent about 31% of the reactive organic gases (ROG) from stationary fuel combustion sources in the central California valleys.
Both ROGs and NOx contribute to forming ground-level ozone in the valleys. CARB estimates that through converting these engines to electricity, up to 98% of these emissions can be eliminated.
AG-ICE program was a result of a major collaboration between air quality regulators, utilities, environmental advocacy groups and the agricultural community.
That would be one way to “jump start” a new electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid program.
Resources:
PG&E AG-ICE
Agricultural Energy Consumers Association announcement on AG-ICE
August 5, 2005 in Diesel, Electric (Battery), Policy | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: tom | August 05, 2005 at 03:13 PM
PG&E doesn't use diesel to run its generators, period.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | August 07, 2005 at 09:06 PM
I hope the Farmers are smart enough NOT to destroy their Diesel Engines.The Demand to do so is an outrage by PG&E and Cal Edison.
Posted by: HHN | August 09, 2005 at 12:23 PM
What are the NOx and SO2 figures for their coal burners and all those new natural gas turbines?
Posted by: tom | August 09, 2005 at 03:21 PM
Makes an awful lot of sense from an efficiency and pollution point of view. Electrically powered pumps are quite a bit more efficient than any internal combustion engines, line losses included. Additionally, induction motors are quite a bit more simple to fix or repair than an internal combustion engine.
The overall amount of NOx, HC, etc. released will be reduced due to the economy of scale when comparing generators in the 10's of MW range versus 100 kW engines.
Posted by: rickie | August 10, 2005 at 10:37 AM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef00d8345a510a53ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference California Utilities Incent Farmers to Ditch Diesel for Electric Pumps:
I wonder what the NOx output of the PG&E and So Cal Edison engines are. The line losses mean that the utlities may use more fuel than the farmers currently use.