Re: AGW. LNG Worse Than Coal.

Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Good luck in getting batteries to work in tractors and harvesters that
run 24 hours per day as many do.  The battery manufacturers and the
vehicle companies are having severe problems keeping today's liquid
lithium batteries in the 59 F to 85 F service range for severe service
conditions.  Above 140 F, the liquid lithium batteries can spontaneously
combust.

The bad news is that as autonomous systems get better and better, farm
machinery will be more apt to be running by itself through the night, so
the need for 24-hour operation is going to be greater.

The good news is that the real battery temperature issues are at low
temperatures where plants don't do well either.  Farm machinery is not
used quite so much in the cold of winter (and sometimes not as much in
the hottest part of summer either depending on the crop).

The interesting news is that replaceable batteries and battery trailers
which are impractical for road use might be perfectly reasonable solutions
for long charge times on farm machinery.

And of course, cost is a major condition here.  Many of the farmers now
buy tractors and harvesters using collectives due to the extreme costs
of such equipment.  That just means that the equipment gets used even
harder.

That's a real problem.  Many of the smaller farmers around here are using
equipment that is fifty or more years old, both because of capex costs,
long-term operating costs, and a lack of smaller equipment on the market.

But they also aren't doing stuff on an industrial scale either because
nobody can compete with the big guys on the crops that the big guys grow.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."