Solar power

[freebeard]

Oops decibel point in the wrong place. I thought that seemed heavy loud.

(Message too short add one character)

[RedDevil]

I thought he decibelately wrote it like that?

[oil pan 4]

My phone seems convinced the word Decimal doesn't exist.
It likes to auto correct to that other more logarithmic version.

[aerohead]

I noodled some numbers for the Caterpillar LEXION 500-Series.
*I gave it a thermal efficiency of 45.9% (near-continuous,constant-rpm )
*Allowed 136,775.23 Btu's/gallon diesel
*divided by 3414 Btu/kWh to get an equivalent electrical input commensurate with the diesel's actual net output to the harvester's machinery
*and came up with approx. 116.683 kWh/hour load.
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If we're looking at an autonomous,GPS-facilitated unit,operating continuously,24-hrs/day,we'd be looking at around 2,800 kWh/day.
A towed,'AG-PACK',2-wheeled trailer 'tender',with 5-Tesla Powerwall-2 units,At 3,701-pounds would suffice to provide enough power.
One operating,and a second,which with a 350kW charger,would come to charge in 8-hours,during off-peak demand,at discounted pricing incentive.Or during mid-day solar farm peaking,when renewables may have to be curtailed,due to insufficient demand,as is experienced in San Francisco,California' summers,where they lose about 850-million EV miles equivalent.
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The numbers may be a bit loose,but hopefully in the ballpark.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

Ethanol would be a much better choice to replace diesel in Agriculture.

*Ethanol is rated at 12,780 Btu/pound
*Diesel is rated at 19,240 Btu/pound
*You'd need 1.5X as much ethanol to do the work of the diesel you're replacing.
*Ethanol requires more Btu's to produce than it contains
*If you remove the Federal corn subsidy,ethanol couldn't compete in an open market.
*Ethanol is a bio-fuel,so it is basically net zero carbon,and that's attractive,but producing it,creates more emissions overall than it saves

[jjackstone]

Personally, I prefer to drink my ethanol.
Wasting perfectly good alcohol in a car.
JJ

[freebeard]

My comment was always 'Vodka is tractor fuel'; but it was more a comment on self-sustaining business.

[sendler]

Corn Ethanol production in the USA only has an ER/EI of 2:1. Half your crop goes toward growing the crop.

[freebeard]

Agreed. A glimpse of our unsustainable future.

And don't forget the Whiskey Rebellion. According to Wikipedia one of the unintended consequences was the founding of political parties that plague the USofA to this day.

The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws, though the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect. The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway.

And if you think about it, it led indirectly to NASCAR.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=moonshine+runners+NASCAR

[roosterk0031]

Originally Posted by aerohead

350kW charger

I doubt any farms have the service to charge at that rate. 200a single phase is the most common service. 350,000/240 = 1,458 amps. I'll stand by my statement that ethanol, even in BTU negative will replace diesel for Ag use before batteries. Cummins has already developed the engine.