Dear List, I was having a chat recently at work (which is nothing whatsoever to do with EVs!) about how vehicles that traditionally use lots of energy would ever be able to switch to electric power due to limitations on energy density. Fuel cell tractors came up amongst other things and then one of my colleagues who, on learning of the enormous amounts of power required by combine harvesters and plough-pulling tractors, jokingly suggested using 'a very long extension lead'. Whilst he is an ill-informed bumpkin, the thought did occur that in an agricultural context powering machines directly from the grid might not be so daft. I immediately thought of those enormous irrigation contraptions that work their way up and down huge fields, laying and unlaying the hose that supplies the irrigation water as it goes. Could not the same technique be applied to tractors etc? Each field would have a connection point with power brought in either above or below ground in the 'usual' way.
An alternative idea would be to have mobile battery swap facilities connected to the grid in each field and be moved from field to field as the work progressed. Just a thought! MW _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
