Off-grid Approach to Support the Small Scale Food Producers in Rural Areas

Abstract

This paper concerns a study of compact system designed to ensure energy independence of buildings located in rural areas: the Off-Grid Box - OGB. This system is an integrated device, self-contained in a container, which provides and producers essential service and resources namely, electricity, hot water, clean water for washing and irrigation and a water purification process that pasteurized/distilled wastewater. The goal of study is to experiment the adoption in agriculture of technology solutions able to satisfy the energy needs (in terms of electricity) of small scale food producers in rural areas with high environmental and landscape value and to identify a compact modular system dedicated to family farming to reduce external inputs and waste. The specific objective is to find a winning solution for self-sufficiency (in off-grid vision) and reducing emissions of the small scale family farms, useful for the sedentary, semi-sedentary and mobile production and processing units. This study is focused on the potential of OGB to guarantee the energy needs of small slaughterhouses in a rural area of Umbria Region. These scenarios are interesting for small family farms that adopt sustainable models and methods of production with low environmental impact and low energy demand to define the indications for their winning energy planning.