Electric irrigation significant cost savings

The switch to electric irrigation offers farmers many advantages. Electric irrigation provides significant savings on energy consumption and significantly reduces CO2 and nitrogen emissions, especially in combination with solar panels. This is apparent from the research of Wageningen University & Research.

The study looked at the switch from a traditional diesel-driven sprinkler system to an electrically powered one. The research was conducted for 2 regions: the Veenkoloniën/Oldambt in Groningen/Drenthe and the southeastern livestock area in East Brabant/North Limburg.

Economic advantage
The economic advantage of electrical irrigation is between €3.200 and €3.600 per year in the Veenkoloniën/Oldambt. When your own solar panels are used, the benefit increases slightly to €3.800 to €4.200 per year.

For the southeastern livestock area, the savings are between €1.300 and €2.200 per year. Here too, the advantage increases slightly when using your own solar panels, namely to €1.500 to €2.400 per year.

Company specific
For the study, an average farm size, farm set-up and irrigation requirement in hours per year were calculated. This is different for the regions concerned. Data from 2018 was used for the average number of irrigation hours. As a result, the past two years (2018, 2019) have not been included in the average. Due to the drought of these years, the average number of watering hours would increase considerably. This makes the advantage of electrical irrigation even more economical.  

In the Veenkoloniën/Oldambt it concerns an average farm with 85 hectares with an average of 270 irrigation hours per year. The diesel consumption is on average 9,5 liters per hour and the consumption of the electrical installation is 30 kWh per hour. For the southeastern livestock area, an average of 24 hectares of arable farming and 107 irrigation hours per year have been calculated. Here too, 9,5 liters of diesel per hour is assumed and the electrical installation consumes 30 kWh per hour.

The calculations do not include the costs of installing electricity connections around the company. This is because this is very company specific. Exchanging and renting land also plays an important role. Diesel-driven pumps are not location-specific and have no fixed location, as is the case with electrically-driven pumps. These need a connection to an installed electricity connection. What is a disadvantage of electric irrigation.

Ecological benefits
In addition to the economic benefits, electric irrigation also has ecological benefits. CO2 emissions are reduced by 95% with the use of self-generated solar energy. An additional advantage of electrical irrigation is that no nitrogen is released.

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