CA: Taking diesel out of farm air - ...replace diesel engines with electric models..

The Sacramento Bee ^ | January 25, 2004 | Jennifer M. Fitzenberger --

[blackdog]

You forgot to run soy oil in your diesel too! That one flips liberals out! If diesel is so terrible, how can they argue the tofu spawning soy bean? Soy diesel runs pretty good in the warm weather.

[Cagey]

"Gotta get these apples to market before they spoil."

[okie01]

And how many batteries is it going to take to to plow/rake/seed/turn under a field several DOZEN square miles in area?

And when are the farmers going to find TIME to recharge these extremely heavy batteries (which, I suppose, aren't going to cause their "new" tractors and mowers and seeding machines (couple of hundred thousand apiece!) to bog down in the dirt)?

No batteries necessary. Just put a heavy duty outlet where the sprinkler pivot is. And plug a really long cord into your tractor, then work in ever-decreasing circles...

Oh! And build a few more power plants, plus expand the grid, too. Since the state and its grid is already on the verge of being out of capacity.

Congratulations, California. There is still no shortage of liberal clowns in your legislature.

[blackdog]

Most people just park their tractor to the pump, hook up the PTO and let-er rip. Running parked old diesel tractors is a no brainer. $3,000 for an old tractor or $12,000 for a 50hp stand alone diesel engine which has no utility whatsoever? Hmmmmm........Which do you think the farmer does?

I've seen diesel tractors turning the shaft on irrigation pumps for a week at a time. Some sites even install a bulk tank which bypasses the tractor's tank allowing it to run forever.

[tubebender]

Please don't tell anyone that my sister and her husband got a FREE diesel engine in their Ford tractor that cost someone $25,000. I suspect they are now looking for a grant to plant a row of Palm Trees like the ones in the photo.

JA...what is the standby fee for a 30 HP pump used on a 30 acre vineyard? I know it has gone up significantly...

[Kirkwood]

Wonder why they didn't go after busses? Gee, I've always heard those dirty stinking busses that cause traffic to back up every rush hour don't pollute at all! They have flowers coming out of their exhaust pipe. It is all of those nasty gasoline powered cars that must meet emissions standards that are killing us.

Wait, next they will be going after semi tractor trailers. Idiots.

[76834]

LOL And just where do you think the batteries come from?
They dont just show up on a diesel powered truck.
Most of them are lead acid cells.
Gotta mine that lead and make that sulphuric acid and manufacture that plastic casing that holds them together.
All activites that require vasts of energy....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Seems sensible to me!!!!

[spunkets]

"Since the state and its grid is already on the verge of being out of capacity."

A smart farmer would pull the plug on the statehouse and surrounding area first to avoid blowing a fuse.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Here is the Papers Headline:

Taking diesel out of farm air

I tried to add something from the secondary headline that would give a clue and fit within the number of characters allowed!

[blackdog]

Talking the diesel out of the air. That's how politicians work.

I say put giant treadmills disguised as border crossings along the Mexico border. Hook the treadmills up to generators and have all those Mexicans turn them like gerbils on a wheel. Give each illegal a quota for entry, something like 1000KWH and a job picking fruit upon delivery.

[Willie Green]

Electric farm tractors?

Looks like the bozos at the Sacramento Bee confused the issue with that captioned picture of the tractor.

Near as I can figure, the article and legislation is just about diesel-electric pumps used for irrigation, not diesel tractors.

I don't know for sure, but I would guess the standby surcharge that the utilities are clubbing the farmers with is merely the "deregulated" market at work. SOMEBODY has to pay for the luxury of holding "excess" unefficient capacity in reserve for when the farmers need to kick in their electric pumps. (Can't blame the farmers for shifting to their own diesel-electric generators to avoid the surcharge.

Of course, the solution under the old, regulated public utility model (that served our nation well for many, many decades) was to intentionally build sufficient capacity so that there was always plenty available for everybody.

There was nothing wrong with that at all, as long as the regulatory agency was "friendly" toward the utilities. But the enviro-whacknuts hijacked the regulatory agencies and created an "unfriendly" business environment. Then the beancounters at the utilities gave up fighting the enviro-whacknuts and came up with the bogus "deregulated" shell game, which is gonna screw everybody with higher rates and shortages.

Sad state of affairs, IMHO.

Kalifornia still needs to build more nukes.
But I don't think Arnie is gonna pull it off.

[Wooly]

And remember that the best power plants are only about 80% efficient. So that means that we will use 20% more energy to replace the diesel units.
Of course the Dems will have to give in to the enviros and vote against new power plants to offset this.

[slohand]

Propane engines would be a better answer, if not for all of the taxes on it. Someone tell Arnold to cut the taxes on propane eh

[76834]

Exactly, and since most power plants are located out of state dont forget the long distance transmission losses in the power lines.

[Robert A Cook PE]

No.

Best power plants are no more than 45-48& efficient.

Granted, direct-drive gas and diesel engines are even less efficient, but more than half the energy used goes out as waste: mainly waste heat, but also cooling water, pumps and compressors, secondary systems and friction, etc.

[blackdog]

Farms don't run diesel engines as stand alones! They run tractors to turn those pumps much like an aircraft at a gate runs on a GPU.

This is just a weasel way to kill diesel tractors, which is fine by me if they do it in California because they buy them all up at auctions and truck them back to California to use in such applications. The out of state buyers here in Wisconsin cause the inventory of used tractors to be way overpriced.

In dairy the average farm hires three mexicans for every one skidsteer. The machines run 24/7.

AFWIW, Jet A (basically diesel) accounts for over 65% of all kerosene/diesel/Jet A used in vehicles. If anyone wants to dent Diesel or soot emmissions, go kick Linda Daschles pet airlines for a reality check. At most carriers running at 40% capacity average, we could kill 50% of all air traffic and save the world. But that's not good, our gubmint sells those routes to feed the beast. The airlines might want their money back and they would find good cause to stop servicing cities like Pierre and Sioux City. But think how much clearer the skies will be?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for dropping by!

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good observation on the pump engines, vice tractor engines.

Thanks.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

In dairy the average farm hires three mexicans for every one skidsteer. The machines run 24/7.

Not sure I know what you are saying there. These are jobs the americans won't do?