Solar-electric Mowers & Tractors
(Page 6 of 8)
August/September 2006
By George DeVault and Charles Higginson
A metal frame atop the old red tractor holds four photovoltaic panels. They supply electricity to nine 12-volt batteries stored in boxes on both sides of the tractor. The deep-cycle marine batteries cost $60 each. They feed a 10 horsepower DC motor mounted under the driver’s seat. The motor, heavy lead-acid batteries and 11-by-5-foot canopy all add lots of weight, which is exactly what a tractor needs for good traction, Howe says. He spent more than $5,000 converting his Cub to electric power, not counting the cost of the tractor. He says the power plant is more than ample.
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“It definitely works!” Howe says. “That little bugger has more power than the tractor can handle. I limit the power to 100 amps maximum so I don’t rip the gears out of the old tractor.”
Howe lectures and writes prolifically about alternative energy and the declining oil supply. He also takes his solar-electric Cub to rural fairs around Maine, and he says it attracts an audience that he can tune into his main concerns. “It’s knee-deep in people all day long,” Howe says. “They love it. We use it to promote the energy cause.”
From lugging logs around his woodlot with a log chain and towing his wife’s Volvo, Howe already knew that his electric Cub was a pulling fool. But, out of curiosity, he entered it in a load-pulling contest at a fair last year. “I used second gear, let some air out of the tires and raised the hydraulics,” he says. “The front end came up. I couldn’t steer. After 40 or 50 feet, I started to head for a wall. I had to shut it down. I got a standing ovation when I drove out of there.”
The Solar-electric Future
As the experiences of Heckeroth, Howe and others show, today’s technology — plus a little amateur ingenuity — can convert a standard gas-powered tractor into a quiet, emission-free, solar-powered electric tractor.
Today, solar-electric mowers and tractors are several things, depending on scale and point of view: do-it-yourself projects, on-the-shelf products, development projects or promising prototypes. Stay tuned — as improved solar collectors and electric drives become available, and oil becomes ever more expensive, we predict that clean, sustainable solar-electric power will drive increasing numbers of machines everywhere.
Vintage Tractor Now Runs on Sunlight
It never fails. Whenever Ron Khosla turns on his tractor, nothing happens. No grinding starter, no plume of blue-black smoke from an exhaust pipe, no clattering engine. That’s because Khosla’s tractor doesn’t have a starter, an exhaust pipe or an engine.
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