“the type to be used In a Märzen, the farmer, the Rösslein”, still belongs to the song treasure of many kindergartens. Meanwhile, the farmer uses of today, no horses, but diesel engines, with 400 and more HP to pull the plow, harrow or the seed drill over the wet Spring fields. City people like flit will electrically from A to B, for the duration of use in the field, the energy density of current batteries seem to be much to low. In order to move a tractor with 290 kW of nominal power for over twelve hours, you needed a battery that weighs twelve tons.
just the Peter Pickel, the coordinates for the agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere in the European research programmes. An opponent of the electrification of pimples is not yet. “Electric drives have, in comparison with diesel units, approximately double the power density,” says the expert. A major reason for this is the continuous power control of the electric motor with a combustion engine only via the detour of a complex hydro-static transmission is possible. Such transmissions allow it, depending on the nature of the soil and work task, adhere to the specified speed exactly.
in Addition, the engine power of a tractor is not only used for locomotion. Also, the work device to be driven, which is done using a mechanical PTO on the gearbox. In the case of an electric drive, this could be through a connection cable replaced, are eliminated. Electrified equipment are already a few in use, such as in the case of seeders. The – compared with mechanical or hydraulic drives – higher precision enables, at the time of sowing of each individual grain exactly, so throw out that it hits precisely at the designated distance on the ground.
The tractor comes to the leash
But it’s all for nothing: Somehow, the electrical energy must come out on the field, if it is to be used. Batteries are only suitable for smaller tractors, how they work, for example, for loading in the yard. Here is a changing concept, in which one of the two batteries depends always on the network. Since many farmers produce now own solar power, it can be useful to buffered. A concept John Deere currently being tested in the Allgäu region. For the heavy field work of the agricultural machinery manufacturers with the prototypes, “Gridcon has presented” a different solution: The tractor comes to the leash, rather to the cable that connects it via a mobile transformer at the edge of the Field with the public power grid.
The biggest challenge is a familiar one to Fiddle around with an electric mower without the battery: under No circumstances the cable may be run over, especially as the current strength in the field is significantly higher than at home. Therefore, the Gridcon at the stem carries a drum, the cable can be settled. A robotic arm places it to the centimeter, in addition to the first track and takes it on the way back – next-lane – back on. This can be edited with a one-Kilometer-long cable to a box in the size of 800 times 200 meters.
