Re: Grid-Battery "Hybrid" Tractors

Bret Cahill · 2008-07-20T23:52:04+00:00

One with lots of small cells. The smaller the cells, the faster thecharging time.The grid: Coal fired plants, nukes, PV, dish Stirling, geo thermal,wind . . . whatever they got that will put out some juice. Polarbears, tropical frogs and hurricanes are not the issue.Plug in hybrids can go 40 miles between charges. A tractor mayrequire 20X higher hp than a Volt but a tractor only needs to go 1mile between charges.If a 400 hp articulated tractor moves 10 mph it's only running 6minutes between charges and will require 3X 400 hp or ~ 1 MW -- 1/6ththe juice drawn by an electric locomotive.In 4 years diesel will be $15 / gallon and electrification will amountto hundreds of dollars/hour in savings, much more money than necessaryto hire someone willing to sit at the end of the field for a fewminutes reading a magazine charging up between furrows.It's only a half mile so a fat high current low voltage wire might bedesirable for safety reasons.Regardless of the size, from the articulated tractor sucking down 22gallons of diesel/hour [$110/hr and spiraling] to a 15 hp gardentractor, the battery + electric motor system will always have a higherspecific power than any IC engine + fuel tank system.The reason is a tractor just doesn't need to go very far to work afield.Same as the batteries in plug in hybrids which require an even largerbattery / hp.In as little as 8 years a lot of the big wells will give out ratherquickly leaving the world with 2/3rds of current production accordingto a recent _London Times_ interview with a former BushCo aid. On topof that China seems to have a permanent double digit growth ratewhile, according to Soros, the U. S. will be in a decades longrecession so the size of China's economy will surpass America's in aslittle as 6 years. This will leave the great majority of Americans totry to get by on a couple percent of the oil we consume today.So here are 3 plausible scenarios:1. electrify the fields & tractors, or,2. return to plowing fields...

Jul 20, 2008 103 Replies

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John Fields 17 years ago

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ehsjr 17 years ago

more sense currently for efficiency and torque

What part of "equivalent tractor" do you NOT understand? While the battery powered tractor is re-charging, the diesel is still plowing. Equivalency is lost.

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BretCahill 17 years ago

more sense currently for efficiency and torque

The part where it makes sense to pay $12/gallon for diesel.

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Bret Cahill

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John Fields 17 years ago

more sense currently for efficiency and torque

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