A lifetime of pumping costs can far out-weigh the capital costs of an irrigation system, so designing, managing and maintaining an efficient irrigation system is vital to minimising costs.
Agriculture Victoria hosted a webinar exploring the opportunities to improve the energy efficiency and reduce pumping costs of your pressurised irrigation system with Agriculture Victoria’s Nick O’Halloran and Jeremy Giddings.
The key areas of improvement Nick and Jeremy highlighted included:
- Hydraulic efficiency:
- Hydraulic optimisation – identifying critical valves in an existing irrigation system and altering the design to lower the required pumping head
- Efficient design – correct sizing of pipes to minimise friction loss
- Irrigation technology – adopt equipment such as low energy disc or screen filters
- Pump efficiency:
- Pump selection
- Variable frequency drives (VFDs)
- System performance and management – operate to specification, avoiding over pressuring, and maintain system through flushing and sanitation programs
- Reduce the volume of water pumped:
- System uniformity
- Irrigation scheduling
This webinar was recorded on 11 June 2024 and all information was accurate at the time of recording.
Transcript: Irrigation energy saving for horticulture – Webinar recording
Further information
- Irrigating Agriculture extensionAUS
- Irrigation Energy Efficiency – Webinar recording
- Watt are the savings – Irrigation energy assessments
- Energy assessment tool for centre pivot & travelling irrigation systems
Irrigation case studies:
- Solar energy savings at Wilandra farm – Clydebank
- Wilandra Virtual Farm Tour
- Victorian Energy Upgrades Program – G.T. Orchards
- Nursery a wrap for igloo insulation
- Irrigation powered by solar pays off
- Gains for grape growers
Other webinars in the series:
- Understanding your electricity bill and supply – Webinar recording
- Energy Efficiency on Dairy Farms – Webinar recording
- Solar on-farm – Webinar recording
- Bioenergy – Webinar recording
- Energy Efficiency in Horticulture – Webinar recording
- Irrigation Energy Efficiency – Webinar recording
- Backup power options in agriculture – Webinar recording
- Energy Analysis – Webinar recording
- Insights from the Agriculture Energy Investment Plan – Webinar recording
- Investing in Sustainable Energy – Larkman Nurseries – Webinar recording
- Commercial feasibility of gasification and pyrolysis on-farm – Webinar recording
