|
Whilst a lot are autonomous, many still are not, but for most reasonably modern gear, upgrade kits are available. yes, they rely heavily on GPS to work out where they are, and the early ones didn't have forward or rear radar, so would run over someone if they were not awake.
Most people have no idea just what it takes to grow food, and with the drive on for meatless products, the situation can only get harder. They think that they can just throw some seed out, flick dirt over it with their boot, and a few days later up comes food. Are they in for a shock WTSHTF !
From personal experience, John Deere charges $500/hr for a telephone chat re any issues, then $1,000/hr on site. Large scale food growing isn't cheap, but in a world of 7 billion, someone has to do it !
Wish it was that easy, feet up, listening to music, but dragging a planter which is 30 meters wide behind the tractor takes a lot of concentration, just looking at all those seed drills and plough plates.
The voltage drop over a long enough cable would be really bad, even if done at 3,300 volts or more, not to mention the extra drag on the machinery pulling 10 km cable behind, and the tangling potential. The drive is for automation on these large scale farms, so lot of individual small machines, with their associated maintenance wouldn't be cost effective.
The tow locomotives on the Panama Canal only operate in one dimension, in a basically straight line, and most now use a series of bus-bars to carry the power, not cables.
The one application for an electric tractor could be the small scale farm, in the 40 hp range, say an orchadist. 25 kw is doable, especially as its not needed continuously usually.
Meanwhile, a gasifier allows me to run a generator from wood, which is a 100% renewable resource, so I'm OK mate.
|