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I've always wondered why you couldn't just string a wire from a tower down to a combine, tractor, or other piece of farm equipment and run it right off the grid

by api 7y ago

I've always wondered why you couldn't just string a wire from a tower down to a combine, tractor, or other piece of farm equipment and run it right off the grid. Using very high voltage could allow the wire to not be that heavy.

ethbro 7y ago
Because farms are huge, and any given unit of area needs to be touched relatively infrequently.
- api 7y ago
  Cables can be thin and long. Look at high tension wires which carry vastly more power. It stands to reason that a much thinner lighter cord could run a combine.
  - mikestew 7y ago
    I won’t even use a corded lawn mower. I highly doubt I’d put up with dragging a wire behind a combine through a 400 acre field.
    - api 7y ago
      Not dragging but way overhead from something about the height of a radio tower. There could be one about every square mile in a grid. It could have a smaller battery too to permit driving between them. Drive up, hook on, unhook, go to next.
      - mikestew 7y ago
        It occurs to me that because I’ve operated farm equipment, maybe one should ignore my poo-pooing. Seriously, sure, I can tell you eight ways to Sunday this won’t work, and some smarty-pants can show me how I’m wrong. But right now I’m just stuck in a mode of “that’s more hassle than filling it with diesel and being done with it”. I might be right, but that’s not where innovation comes from, so I’ll be quiet.
        api 7y ago
        It probably is more of a hassle but it would also be cheaper and lower emission. Of course I dont know if fuel is a significant cost to farmers. There may be ways to make it less of a hassle by automating it somehow. I'm thinking of some standard hook on/off system. It's a tough problem though. Maybe batteries will just keep getting better and lighter and cheaper and we can just go that way.
        ethbro 7y ago
        You're suggesting a large capital investment, with dubious utility, in a leveraged, low margin business with little access to technologically aggressive capital funding. Furthermore, it's predicated on the supplier developing and marketing a class of equipment for which little demand currently exists. Against that, the price of diesel seems relatively small.
deleted 7y ago
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by api 7y ago

ethbro 7y ago

Because farms are huge, and any given unit of area needs to be touched relatively infrequently.

api 7y ago
Cables can be thin and long. Look at high tension wires which carry vastly more power. It stands to reason that a much thinner lighter cord could run a combine.
- mikestew 7y ago
  I won’t even use a corded lawn mower. I highly doubt I’d put up with dragging a wire behind a combine through a 400 acre field.
  - api 7y ago
    Not dragging but way overhead from something about the height of a radio tower. There could be one about every square mile in a grid. It could have a smaller battery too to permit driving between them. Drive up, hook on, unhook, go to next.
    - mikestew 7y ago
      It occurs to me that because I’ve operated farm equipment, maybe one should ignore my poo-pooing. Seriously, sure, I can tell you eight ways to Sunday this won’t work, and some smarty-pants can show me how I’m wrong. But right now I’m just stuck in a mode of “that’s more hassle than filling it with diesel and being done with it”. I might be right, but that’s not where innovation comes from, so I’ll be quiet.
      - api 7y ago
        It probably is more of a hassle but it would also be cheaper and lower emission. Of course I dont know if fuel is a significant cost to farmers. There may be ways to make it less of a hassle by automating it somehow. I'm thinking of some standard hook on/off system. It's a tough problem though. Maybe batteries will just keep getting better and lighter and cheaper and we can just go that way.
        ethbro 7y ago
        You're suggesting a large capital investment, with dubious utility, in a leveraged, low margin business with little access to technologically aggressive capital funding. Furthermore, it's predicated on the supplier developing and marketing a class of equipment for which little demand currently exists. Against that, the price of diesel seems relatively small.

deleted 7y ago

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