Battery powered electric vehicles developed for light agricultural duties in remote areas in the southern Mediterranean region

摘要

Hilly and remote areas in the Southern Mediterranean region suffer a high cost of diesel fuel, problematic supply, poor or non-existent grid connections and lack of maintenance technicians to service farm grid generation systems and machinery. A prototype battery powered electric vehicle using a solar photovoltaic array (10kWp) was installed at a monastery situated at Achkout (Lebanon) with a total agricultural area of 50 hectares, 10 hectares of which was under viticulture. The monastery and associated farmland previously relied on a diesel powered generator (35 kVA) and a diesel fuelled tractor (20 kW) for meeting electrical loads and motive power. This prototype battery powered electric vehicle or Renewable Energy Agricultural Multipurpose System (RAMseS) for Farmers has been developed under the European Union's FP6 programme to investigate the potential for the cleaner production of power, hence reducing the use of diesel fuels in agriculture. Data collected from the test site is presented. An economic analysis determined that if the current trends in inflation in the EU continue and fuel costs increase by 10% per annum, then the original RAMseS system will be economically viable. A further analysis looking at the adoption of new lithium titanate batteries reveals that these systems would be cost effective if these new batteries can be produced at a similar cost to lead acid batteries. Adoption of the RAMseS system for a 10 hectare vineyard would result in annual fuel and carbon dioxide saving of 4000 litres and 2.9 tonnes respectively. The use of alternative non-lead based batteries would save the use of nearly 21 tonnes of lead over the system's lifetime.