Hybrid Vehicles with Exportable Power for Community-Based Agriculture Mechanization

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Overview

Motivo Engineering, LLC



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Project

Hybrid Vehicles with Exportable Power for Community-Based Agriculture Mechanization

Collaborators

The KVK Foundation (India)

Location Applied

India (West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh)

Although farm productivity in India has grown steadily over recent decades, crop yields are still just 30 - 60% of the best crop yields in many other countries. Agricultural productivity could be significantly boosted by creating more accessible agricultural machinery, and by providing a mobile energy source that runs on inexpensive renewables to meet multiple farm needs such as harvesting, cold storage, and transportation.[1]



Clean Energy Solution

Motivo is developing a “Swiss-Army Knife” system - the Hybrid Agriculture/Road Vehicles with Electricity Storage and Transformation (HARVEST) - that solves a wide range of agricultural mechanization and power-related problems. HARVEST is a multi-purpose platform that provides power for plowing, well-drilling, cold storage, and transporting crops to market. The system utilizes power from varied energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, micro-hydro turbines, or the grid to enable increased productivity all along the agriculture value chain. The entire system is operated at the community level, and facilitated by mobile communication technology for scheduling, billing, and payments.


The HARVEST system was recently featured in the Los Angeles CleanTech Global Showcase and Motivo itself was nominated as having one of the top 5 innovative idewas featured at a tech-conference: read more in the Powering Agriculture April 2016 Newsletter.




Impact

HARVEST democratizes opportunity in agriculture by making available to entire communities huge gains in productivity that are enabled through mechanization and reliable power. Varied energy sources will reduce reliance on increasingly-expensive imported diesel, and the system itself will create new skilled jobs for men and women in rural areas in deploying, managing, and maintaining the HARVEST equipment.[2]

© Motivio Engineering
© Motivio Engineering




Organization

Motivo Engineering specializes in electro-mechanical systems to solve complex challenges across diverse market segments. Motivo’s partner, the KVK Foundation, will draw on their extensive rural development experience in India to introduce new technologies to rural villages, while its partner Feuerlabs will offer their expertise in remote data connectivity to develop a management platform for new technologies.[3]

Progress Update

Motivo’s HARVEST prototype is now functional and undergoing testing in California. The HARVEST prototype is being tested in small fields and nurseries. Motivo continues to work on upgrades to make the tractor more functional and is close to deploying HARVEST to Indian farmers.[2]

Further Information

References

  1. ↑ Powering Agriculture - Motivo Engineering: http://poweringag.org/innovators/hybrid-vehicles-exportable-power-community-based-mechanization
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Powering Agriculture - Motivo Engineering: http://poweringag.org/2013-winners/motivo
  3. ↑ Motivo Engineering: http://www.motivoengineering.com/
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