EMISSION REDUCTION USING ELECTRIC TRACTORS AND ROBOTS

Now that electric cars have become commonplace, it is almost inevitable that tractor manufacturers will replace diesel fuel with electrical power thus reducing carbon emissions. This will apply to the estimated 80,000 registered agricultural tractors in the Republic of Ireland in 2019, corresponding to just over 3% of all mechanically propelled vehicles under current license. However, Caban et al[i] are less optimistic of this outcome suggesting that the limited electrical capacity of batteries reduces the time available to complete daily agricultural tasks. McIntosh[ii] supports this view indicating that battery power, specifically related to torque and charging challenges, limits the scalability of electrically driven farm equipment. Further support is provided by Mcfadzean and Butter[iii] who used a McCormick MC120[iv] in a round bale loading exercise in Cheshire as well as a New Holland TS90[v] to operate a feeder wagon in Derbyshire. They found that the cost of charging an all-electric system for these practical tasks would exceed the cost of diesel for the same output because high-powered tractors were used. Notwithstanding such gloomy prognoses, progress has been made in manufacturing small electric tractors including California’s Solectrac eUtility and eFarmer; India’s Farmtrac: (CET) and the Swiss, Rigitrac model. The development of electrical prototypes for larger enterprises has stimulated interesting developments including those of Kubota, Fendt, John Deere and Steyr. At a two-day forum[vi] organized by the German Agricultural Society, DLG, three hundred industry specialists concluded that wheeled tractors have now reached their limit arising from the ever-increasing tractor size and subsequent soil compaction. They postulate that the future may lie in swarm technology using robots. The Xaver robots pioneered by Fendt or similar systems would also lead to a reduction in carbon emissions.

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