It certainly doesn’t have the sleek lines of some of the solar lawn mowers around, but this mower is 100% directly powered by solar energy, uses a standard solar panel and doesn’t even have a battery.
Just about all solar mowers on the market today incorporate small solar panels that really just give the mower a boost while operating. These mowers need to sit out in the sun between uses for quite a long time to recharge the unit’s batteries.
Samuel Hamill, a senior electrical engineering student at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has developed a prototype solar lawn mower powered solely by a 160 watt solar panel.
The electricity generated by the module powers two DC motors. One drives standard reel mower blades and the other a solar tracker. Photoresistors help the panel keep track of the sun as the mower is used.
Mr. Hamill says with the addition of a deep cycle battery (and we assume a solar regulator to control the charging) the mower could be used on a cloudy day.
The environmental impact of lawn mowers is significant. According to the USA Environmental Protection Authority, a conventional petrol powered lawn mower emits on average 45 kilograms of carbon dioxide and more than 22 kilograms of other pollutants into the atmosphere annually. Additionally, they contribute to noise pollution, a severely underrated environmental issue.
Another solar lawn mower we’ve covered in the past is the Husqvarna Automower Solar Hybrid – a fully robotic lawn mower; but that unit is only partly directly powered by the sun in operation (and rather pricey).
A cheaper way to “greener” lawn maintenance for solar households is to purchase a battery powered electric mower such as the Victa Enviromower (RRP $469). These mowers can be recharged via the home’s grid connect solar power system; in effect having the potential to make them fully solar powered.
