Solar-electric Mowers & Tractors
(Page 7 of 8)
August/September 2006
By George DeVault and Charles Higginson
Khosla’s antique Allis-Chalmers Model G tractor used to have all that, of course, as well as a radiator that could boil over in summer or freeze in winter, a cantankerous carburetor that could leak gasoline, a fan belt that could break, and motor oil and various filters that he had to change.
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Now, his solar-powered G runs quietly and efficiently, virtually maintenance- and worry-free. Four powerful batteries sit behind the driver’s seat, where a 5 gallon gasoline tank, a radiator, a fan and a 12 horsepower internal-combustion engine were originally installed more than half a century ago.
Khosla doesn’t miss the engine, its noise or its smell one bit. He doesn’t worry about running out of gas or its rising price, either. After hours of peacefully planting or cultivating, Khosla simply parks his tractor in the field, plugs it into a large, portable solar panel and recharges his batteries — free — from the sun.
“I have never run out of juice,” he says. “I have never had a problem. We couldn’t farm without it.” He liked his first electrified G so much that he converted a second G to solar-electric power. Khosla and his wife, Kathryn, use the Gs to run their 13 acre Huguenot Street Farm in New Paltz, N.Y., about 60 miles north of New York City. This Community Supported Agriculture farm serves 235 members and three large restaurants. Khosla spent $1,325 converting each tractor. Costs of the solar panel, mounting frames, etc., were about $2,200. The project was funded by a $7,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, which included production of an instruction manual. (Step-by-step instructions for converting an Allis-Chalmers G to electric power appear on Khosla's Web site. — Mother)
“The electric G is still cheaper than a new cultivating tractor,” Khosla says. “And it just feels so cool not to have to plug the tractors into a grid electrical outlet. We also have converter that allows us to power the whole house and our walk-in cooler off the tractor batteries, which were charged off the sun. That’s literally cool!
“From a marketing perspective, saying we run the farm on electric tractors is good, but saying we run it on solar-electric tractors ... well, that just takes the farm right over the top!”
Candidates for Conversion
The Farmall Cub, Allis-Chalmers Model G and John Deere L tractors are well suited to electric conversion. They were built from the late 1930s to early 1960s, specifically to replace teams of horses on small farms. The roughly 10 horsepower size of each tractor is perfect for conversion to electric power, solar-electric enthusiast John Howe says. “It’s big enough to be useful, yet small enough to be manageable.”
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