B4
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2022
Farmers, groups experiment with e-tractors
really adds another layer of resilience to
our farming community.”
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
DUFUR — The fi rst time Robert Wal-
lace started an electric tractor, he was
astonished by how quiet it was.
“I didn’t know if it was on or not,”
Wallace said. “It was the most mind-bog-
gling thing. It took me probably two or
three weeks to get used to, not having a
constant rumble of noise.”
Over the last year, Wallace has
become well acquainted with the tractor
as he used it to mow grass and perform
other chores around his home near Dufur.
His demonstrations are part of a
unique project in Oregon, fi eld testing
electric tractors in rural agricultural areas
like Dufur and allowing producers to see
fi rsthand what they can do on farms and
in orchards.
Data from the trials were also used
by Oregon State University in a newly
released study comparing the cost of
ownership for battery-powered electric
tractors to their diesel counterparts. Early
results indicate the cost may be compara-
ble, depending on several factors, includ-
ing the purchase price, fuel prices and
maintenance costs.
Proponents of electric vehicles are
quick to point out social and environmen-
tal benefi ts such as reducing carbon emis-
sions that contribute to climate change.
But Wallace said his main focus is simply
learning how the technology stacks up for
rural areas.
“I consider myself just a realist,” he
said. “I want to be able to say if it works,
or if it doesn’t work.”
Inevitable transition
Wallace is executive director of the
Wy’East Resource Conservation and
Development Area Council, a regional
nonprofi t based in The Dalles dedicated
to helping farms improve their energy
and water effi ciency.
As a certifi ed energy manager, Wal-
lace has spent most of the last decade
working with growers to optimize their
irrigation systems by installing more effi -
cient pumps and sprinklers.
The electric tractor project came to
Wallace from two other Oregon nonprof-
its — Sustainable Northwest, a renew-
able energy and natural resources conser-
vation group, and Forth Mobility, which
aims to expand access to electric vehicles
and transportation.
Discussions started pre-pandemic,
with the nonprofi ts interested in accel-
erating the adoption of electric farm
machinery.
Bridget Callahan, senior energy pro-
gram manager for Sustainable North-
west, said the transition to electrifi cation
is inevitable as more states adopt policies
to curb fossil fuels.
Oregon legislators passed a law known
as the Climate Protection Program late
last year. It requires fuel suppliers in Ore-
gon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from the products they sell 50% by 2035
and 90% by 2050.
“Our idea is, we’re seeing this rapid
transformation. ... We know it’s not going
to look the same in rural parts of the state
and Northwest,” Callahan said. “How do
we ensure major investments in electrifi -
cation, and what does that look like in a
rural context?”
Whitaker Jamieson, program man-
ager at Forth Mobility, said they wanted
to show the potential for electric tractors
on farms.
“I think that’s the key to the demon-
stration,” Jamieson said. “You start to see
heads turning, and people saying ‘I need
to start thinking about this for my farm.’”
A fourth project partner, the Bonne-
ville Environmental Foundation, came
aboard and provided funding to pur-
chase one of the fi rst two demonstration
tractors.
The foundation works primarily with
consumer-owned utilities in the North-
west that purchase hydroelectricity from
the Bonneville Power Administration.
It includes a renewable energy program
that supports community solar projects,
as well as electric vehicles.
Evan Ramsey, senior director of
renewables for the foundation, said the
project was a good fi t.
“This was one way to get some of
this clean technology into those com-
munities,” Ramsey said. “Certainly the
prospects for electric tractors — reduc-
ing operating expenses, reducing health
impacts for farmers and reducing emis-
sions — those are all great outcomes, if
we can realize them.”
The project has also received backing
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture ,
Alumbra Innovations Foundation, Pacifi c
Power and Portland General Electric’s
Drive Change Fund.
Wallace, with the Wy’East Resource
Conservation and Development Area
Council , said he was brought on to be the
boots on the ground, running the tractors
and building interest among farmers.
The fi rst two tractors were shipped to
his home in 2021. Both came from the
California manufacturer Solectrac — the
40-horsepower eUtility Electric Trac-
tor and 30-horsepower Compact Electric
Tractor.
Wallace fi tted both models with data
collection systems that use cellular and
satellite connections to show where the
tractors have been, what they were doing,
how long they were able to do specifi c
Growing interest
George Plaven/Capital Press
Robert Wallace, executive director of the Wy’East Resource Conservation and Development Area
Council, demonstrates using a new Solectrac Compact Electric Tractor at his home in Dufur.
tasks and how much energy they used.
One of the challenges, Wallace said,
is limitations with the battery packs. To
make a battery large enough to power a
500-horsepower combine, like those seen
in his neighbors’ wheat fi elds, would not
be cost-eff ective.
But for smaller farms, vineyards and
orchards, Wallace said the electric trac-
tors can do a lot.
“Overall, they can perform any job
that an equivalent diesel tractor can per-
form,” he said.
Field testing, charging
Dave Picanso, farm manager at Rusted
Gate Farm in Central Point, said they
hosted the electric tractors last spring
to test drive in their apple and truffl e
orchards.
“When we fi rst started using them, the
fi rst thing everybody noticed is how quick
they are,” Picanso said. “You can take off
basically in any gear.”
Rusted Gate Farm is a working farm
and nonprofi t organization in the Rogue
Valley of southern Oregon. Part of the
mission, Picanso said, is to support other
small farms through demonstrations, trials
and educational outreach.
Picanso said there was defi nitely a
learning curve getting used to the elec-
tric tractors and how they handle. The
tractors were too small to use working
hay, he said. They were better suited for
the orchards — mowing brush, moving
mulch and running a rotary tiller between
rows of trees.
The tractors charged overnight, and
Picanso said they never had an issue run-
ning out of battery while out on a job.
“We ran it for three and a half to four
hours pretty hard, and we would still have
30% (battery),” he said.
In Dufur, Wallace showed how the
tractors can plug into any standard 220-
volt outlet. It takes roughly three to four
hours for the tractors to fully charge, while
the battery life ranges from several hours
to all day, depending on how hard they’re
working.
“It’s a lot easier to charge these than
even what we originally thought,” Wal-
lace said. “We don’t need on-farm
charging stations.”
Wallace acknowledges there are lim-
itations with the tractors’ size and batter-
ies. They can’t do everything that com-
mercial agriculture demands, he said, but
trials like those at Rusted Gate prove they
can be eff ective in certain operations.
“Now we’ve got things we can use,
things we can see on the landscape,” he
said. “It’s not going to fi t every solution,
and that’s not what we’re trying to do.”
Earlier this month , Oregon State Uni-
versity published a study analyzing the
cost of ownership for the Solectrac Com-
pact Electric Tractor and 32-horsepower
John Deere 2032R.
The study, conducted by Oregon
State’s Nexus of Energy, Water and Agri-
culture Lab, assumes both tractors oper-
ate 250 hours a year for seven years. The
cost of ownership is divided into four seg-
ments: purchase price, fi nancing costs,
energy costs and maintenance and repair.
According to the study, the electric
tractor produced substantially less green-
house gas emissions — 1.56 metric tons
versus 4.84 metric tons generated by the
diesel tractor. The electric tractor’s emis-
sions were calculated based on the esti-
mated emissions of generating the elec-
tricity it used.
Meanwhile, the cost of ownership was
roughly equivalent, ranging from $39,853
to $40,738 for the electric tractor com-
pared to $37,553 to $43,072 for the diesel
tractor. The fi ndings were based on data
collected by Wallace.
Kyle Proctor, the study’s author, wrote
that eTractors “off er a great value proposi-
tion for farmers in the Pacifi c Northwest.”
“The transition toward eTractors
would support the country’s goals of com-
bating climate change, and because agri-
culture is one of the industries most vul-
nerable to climate change impacts, the
transition to eTractors can serve as an act
of self-preservation for agriculture,” Proc-
tor wrote.
More than 80% of the cost of owner-
ship for the Solectrac Compact Electric
Tractor is associated with the initial pur-
chase price. The base price is listed at
$27,999, or $33,797 if you add the front
loader and industrial tires.
The base price for the diesel John
Deere 2032R is $25,345, which includes
industrial tires.
Deere and other manufacturers are also
developing electric tractors and sprayers.
Callahan, with Sustainable Northwest,
said the study is further underscored by
the rising cost of diesel. The American
Automobile Association reports the aver-
age price of diesel is currently $4.99 per
gallon in Oregon, and $4.48 per gallon
nationwide.
Average electricity prices in Ore-
gon are lower than the national average,
according to the U.S. Energy Informa-
tion Administration, with about half all all
generation hydro power.
Rates are 10.86 cents per kilowatt-hour
for residential customers; 9.27 cents per
kilowatt-hour for commercial custom-
ers; and 5.89 cents per kilowatt-hour for
industrial customers.
“Energy is one of the few things (farm-
ers) can control,” Callahan said. “Electri-
fying their farm, being able to plug their
tractor in at home and being able to com-
pletely remove all these other market
forces provides a lot more stability, and
A separate report released simulta-
neously by the Cadeo Group in Port-
land examined the electric tractor mar-
ket in the Pacifi c Northwest and barriers
to adoption.
Electric tractors are still nascent in the
U.S., according to the report, making up
less than 1% of the total market share.
Buyers now tend to be hobby farmers
willing to assume greater risk to try less
established technologies.
“The farm is not their primary source of
income,” the report states, “and therefore
they are more willing to try a new tech-
nology based on other motivations such as
carbon emission reduction without risking
their long-term economic capability.”
However, the report states that adoption
of electric tractors could quickly increase
due to recent technological improvements,
cost reductions in development and manu-
facturers increasing production.
Based on their demonstrations and cost
of ownership fi ndings, Callahan said the
project is growing in both scale and inter-
est. Another two Solectrac Compact Elec-
tric Tractors were delivered earlier this
month, which will be made available to
farms for testing.
In March, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, both Ore-
gon Democrats, announced a $1.5 mil-
lion allocation to the project, which will
be used to add 12 new electric vehicles to
the fl eet.
“We’re certainly eager to watch this
program scale,” Callahan said. “We just
want to make sure this technology is
accessible, and we think there are a lot of
ways to do it.”
Traci Brock, member services man-
ager for the Wasco Electric Cooperative
in The Dalles, said they will bring an elec-
tric tractor to demonstrate at their annual
member appreciation picnic in June. The
co-op serves roughly 5,000 square miles
and 3,000 customers in rural Oregon.
“Farmers, as much as they want to say
they don’t want it, I think it intrigues them
a little bit,” Brock said. “It’s one thing
reading an article about it. It’s another
thing actually getting your hands on it.”
Jamieson, the project manager at Forth
Mobility, said electric tractors are only
going to get better as the project moves
forward.
“Once the market really starts to pick
up over the next 2 to 3 years, I think we’ll
start to see pretty signifi cant changes in
this sphere,” he said.
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