FEATURE
LAWN CARE PROFESSIONALS FINDING NEW OPTIONS FOR GETTING THE JOB DONE: Patent-pending Solution Developed on University of Tennessee-Knoxville Campus
One of the first Powershed units installed for experimental use on the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture campus
Remote setting for Powershed on the driving range of UT golf facilities
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hallenges abound for lawn care professionals now, from staffing shortages to fuel costs to unique demands of clients with remote or rugged properties. Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine even boosted a benchmark for fuel costs, Brent Crude Oil, to a 7-year-high. Plus, more stringent environmental rules and requests for quieter lawn care tools are inspiring demand for alternatives to traditional gasoline-powered mowers. Business forecasters are showing even more growth ahead in demand for electric mowers. Arizton Advisory & Intelligence reported robotic mowers are expected to grow at a rate of nearly 16 percent between 2019 and 2025. The Powershed charging concept is designed to power current and future generations of robotic mowers. On the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, one lawn care professional’s challenge inspired an industrialgrade solution. Matthew Layne’s role as Turf Manager was part of his responsibility for more than 900 acres of property. He recognized that certain areas needed to meet expectations for staying manicured, although they were not necessarily easy for his staff to reach with a typical mowing device. He also had a lack of available electrical outlets in that area. Vice President of UT Research Foundation’s Multi-Campus Office Maha Krishnamurthy Ph.D., MBA said, “Our UT innovator Matthew Layne wanted to solve an increasingly difficult maintenance challenge: one area of the university’s campus was so tough to access that his staff had to scale down a wall holding weed eaters to maintain it – a time-consuming approach. A lack of available outlets in that area and his desire for a sustainable solution to this problem led Matthew and UTRF to search for a commercial partner to co-develop Matthew’s innovation about solar charging stations, specifically for small robotic mowers.” Layne began reaching out in late 2019 to Knoxville-area solar companies to find a partner for his vision of powering mowers with a standalone photovoltaic device. He connected with General Manager Jon Hamilton and Vice President Harvey Abouelata at Solar Alliance. The group of inventors also found an ally in the University of Tennessee Research Foundation. By 2020, UTRF filed a provisional patent application with the US Patent Office on behalf of Powershed. That fall, Solar Alliance signed a commercial license agreement UTRF to develop and eventually sell the heavy-duty solar charging stations. The patent offers intellectual property protection pending an awarded patent. Powershed is a uniquely designed system that provides housing and charging for robotic mowers while harnessing power from the sun and including battery power storage. It incorporates CAT photovoltaic panels. Powershed has been tested for more than a year at various sites on the UT Knoxville Campus. The system has been used as a single module with panels providing 440 watts of power, as well as a double module whose panels deliver 880 watts. A 400 Ah battery is included for power storage. The single module supports a mowing range of approximately two acres, while the double module supports up to six acres of mowing. The system has a web-based monitoring platform and is Bluetooth, Wifi and LTE-enabled. Experimental use of the Powershed on campus has recently been with Husqvarna, ECHO Robotics and Ambrogio mowers. With an estimated 50-million acres of turfgrass in the United States, the President of the National Turfgrass Federation called turf the nation’s fourth largest crop in terms of acreage.
TENNESSEE TURFGRASS APRIL / MAY 2022 Email TTA at: info@ttaonline.org
