Some small electric models are just becoming available to farmers, and Wallace and his program partners are putting them under the microscope. But agricultural equipment manufacturing, a $38 billion industry in the U.S., is only beginning to go green. Thanks to quick production and marketing of electric automobiles, American drivers already have plenty of options to choose from when replacing a gas-powered car with an all-electric one. It’s part of a citizen science program testing first-generation electric farm equipment on the ground, likely the first program of its kind in the U.S. Beginning last year, he fitted several Solectracs with data-gathering sensors and offered them for free tests on farms and gardens in rural Oregon. Wallace has since become a guru of electric tractors, climate tech that’s just starting to show up on U.S. “I wasn’t sure if it was running or not.” “It was the first electric tractor I’d ever seen,” he said. But the electric machine, distributed by the California-based startup Solectrac, didn’t idle when he turned it on, unlike the loud diesel-powered tractors he was used to. ![]() Wallace, an expert on rural energy projects, knows his way around a tractor. Robert Wallace was puzzled when the first electric tractor was delivered to his home in rural Dufur, Oregon, about 75 miles east of Portland.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |