Green Energy at WSU Organic Farm

Overview: EWB@WSU is designing a wind-solar hybrid system to be installed at the WSU Organic Farm. Our project objectives are twofold. First, we wish to put the farm off the grid using a sustainable energy technique. This will support the farm manager’s goal in providing a self-sustaining farm. Loads will include a greens washing machine, power tool chargers, scales, lighting, and a computer for inventory. Second, we wish to provide an educational link for the university community become more involved in renewable energy. One of the important pieces of this link will be a real time transfer of solar, wind, and power information to the Renewable Energy lab on campus. We plan to install a small weather system at the site to measure wind speed, wind direction, light intensity, and temperature. This data will accompany the current and voltage measurements in the transmission to the university.

Timeline: The Project began September 2009 and will be completed by May 2010. “Completion” includes implementing debugging, and teaching users how to correctly maintain and use the system.

About the Farm:
“The 3 acre Organic Farm is located inside the 50 acre WSU Tukey Horticultural Orchard and is 1.5 miles from the main Pullman campus. The Organic Farm operates through the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences while the orchard is run by the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. The Organic Farm was first certified organic in 2004 and remains certified by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.” (http://css.wsu.edu/organicfarm/)

The Team:


  1. Kamshad Eshghi (EE), Project Leader

  2. Levi Keene (EE), President of EWB@WSU

  3. ------------------------------------------------
  4. Kevin (ME), Wind System

  5. ------------------------------------------------
  6. Richard Oare (CompE), Data Acquisition System

  7. ------------------------------------------------
  8. Hunter McCracken (CE), Structures

  9. Said Abdi-dhahar (CE), Structures

  10. ------------------------------------------------
  11. Jiayi Jiang (EE), Solar System

  12. ------------------------------------------------
  13. Bryan Young (EE), Battery System

  14. Curtis Maddex (EE), Battery System

  15. ------------------------------------------------
  16. Justin West (EE), Wiring/Fuses/Breakers,

  17. Bruk Woldearegay (EE), Wiring/Fuses/Breakers

  18. Kevin Haynshi (EE), Wiring/Fuses/Breakers