MEN Fair 2012 - Energy Alternatives For Small Farms And Homesteads

Energy Alternatives for Small Farms and Homesteads
Presented by Chris Lent of The National Center for Appropriate Technology

This presentation opened with a brief overview of the NCAT organization and the ATTRA Program. Once the introduction was out of the way, he moved on to discussions of various energy technologies and conservation strategies. Unfortunately, however, a one hour workshop is simply no long enough to go into any real detail on such a broad topic.

Topics covered included pv systems, wind turbines, bio-diesel, and even the use of draft animals instead of tractors. I was particularly interested in the discussion of draft animals, because, even though it is not something I had even considered, it is a very traditional process. An example, that I would never thought of, was given to illustrate how draft power can actually be faster than using a tractor. The example was a crew that used horses to pull a gas powered auger that they used for installing fence posts. Rather than constantly getting off and back on the tractor to move from spot to spot, they were able to issue vocal commands to the horses and have them pull the move on to the next spot. This allowed them to get in a good rhythm and dig the holes more quickly than if they had been using a tractor instead.