Electric drives are on their way to becoming standard in farm equipment.
Electric farm tractors are closer than we think. This week the Agriculture Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) issued a news release stating it has established the “New High Voltage Project Group” aimed at standardizing a tractor interface that would provide electric power to farm implements.
Major equipment manufacturers like AGCO, John Deere, and New Holland have talked about this concept for years as a way to reduce fuel costs, pollution and our dependence on fossil fuels. http://farmindustrynews.com/electric-tractors. They have gone as far as showcasing prototypes of tractors and self-propelled sprayers that are partially driven by electric motors—see http://bit.ly/mLpKv9, http://bit.ly/mgOSvf, and http://bit.ly/mgOSvf. With the news of a standard being developed on the topic, we can only assume the farm machinery industry is headed toward an age of electric power.
Project leader Harald Dietel of Sensor-Technik Wiedemann GmbH was quoted as saying:
“Using the control abilities of the electric motors opens the world of decentralized motors to overcome the limitations of mechanical and hydraulic solutions matching the requirements of a new generation of implements with substantial advantages.”
Stay tuned for more information on this developing topic at www.farmindustrynews.com.