About Powering Agriculture
Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development supports the development and deployment of clean energy innovations that increase agriculture productivity and stimulate low carbon economic growth in the agriculture sector of developing countries to help end extreme poverty and extreme hunger.
In India, agricultural productivity could be significantly boosted with more accessible machinery, and by providing a mobile energy source that runs on inexpensive renewables.
Thanks to PAEGC grant funding, Motivo is developing Hybrid Agriculture/Road Vehicles with Electricity Storage and Transformation (HARVEST) that solves a wide range of agricultural mechanization and power-related problems.
Motivo Power presentation at GloSho 2014. Photo: Michael Nystrom / Neon Tommy
Motivo’s HARVEST system was recently featured in the Los Angeles CleanTech Global Showcase. Motivo also was nominated by Neon Tommy as having one of the top 5 innovative ideas featured at a tech conference.
Motivo's Harvest tractor is a big battery on wheels. It can be charged using a variety of energy sources, and then stores power on-board and delivers it when and where required, whether to work the fields, pump water, power refrigeration, transport products or people, or even to charge a phone.
Motivo CEO Praveen Penmetsa sat down with Automotive Engineering to discuss how his company embraces challenging projects and big, new ideas. He's especially proud of Motivo's HARVEST tractor, the "Swiss Army knife" platform for a range of challenges facing smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa.
Motivo's Harvest Mobile Power Platform could be shared, co-op style, among several farmers. Co-owners would sign out units with an app—some call is the "Uberization" of agriculture. Motivo hopes their success in developing countries will attract the attention of U.S. agriculture.
Motivo's HARVEST—Hybrid Agriculture/Road Vehicles with Electricity Storage and Transformation—is a multi-purpose platform that provides power for plowing, well-drilling, cold storage, and transportation, all while decreasing operating expenses by more than 60% when compared to a diesel tractor.