Farm electrification: A road-map to decarbonize the agriculture sector
Arash Farokhi Soofi, Saeed D. Manshadi, Araceli Saucedo
Abstract
Electrification is a promising approach to most carbon-emitting sectors of economic sectors of human activities such as transportation and industry sectors. Electrifying the machinery and different systems used in a farm can mitigate the carbon footprint of the agriculture sector if renewable energy sources are coordinated with the agricultural loads appropriately. This paper presents a road-map that: 1) presents greenhouse gases emitting activities in the food supply chain, 2) the potential impact of vertical farming on the agriculture sector, 3) discuss the carbon footprint of different activities in the food supply chain, and 4) presents a road-map to decarbonize greenhouse gas emitting activities in farms. This paper estimates that electrification of farms in an appropriate process with renewable energy resources can decrease the carbon footprint of farming 44–70% depends on the type of the farm.