NOVA The Nuclear Option

[VitaminJ]

570 Liters of diesel per day = 5,700 kWh per day. Even if you cut that by2.5 for the extra efficiency of electric motors with round trip losses you get 2,300 kWh per day for a large size farm machine. 12 Tesla grid scale 200kWh powerpacks per day to hot swap in and out. for just one tractor. We are going to need to start making a lot of wire to get all of this power around.
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That's it? 2300kwh would weigh 19,464 lbs if using 12 Tesla 200kwh packs at 1,622 lbs. Of course a purpose-built pack would have weight savings. A combine harvester weighs about 30,000 lbs to start with and when loaded up with equipment and grain can come close to 90,000 lbs so if properly designed from the start, 20,000 lbs of batteries might not be that big of a burden after all. Carbon fiber and other high-tech stuff is fast becoming standard-tech and it's only a matter of time until it...wait, it's already being used: http://www.wnif.co.uk/2016/09/john-deer ... d-sprayer/

Yes we will need to upgrade or completely overhaul the grid to support something like that, and use nuclear energy.

[VitaminJ]

75% of a tractors time is spent spraying.

That is where it gets interesting,
A large percentage of a farms crude oil use is tied up in making fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides.

As North Korea discovered, if you loose access to adequate crude and actively try to change agricultural techniques you loose 1/3 of your population to starvation (yes this is a real world test of loosing chemical fertizer)

Even if we go 100% solar, we need oil to make fertilizer because our soil is so barren and devoid of nutrients.

We simply can't produce enough food at our current population levels without chemical fertilizers.

As I said technology is just a crutch moving the inevitable off into the future. Our descendants will eventually face hard decisions because of the consequences of our arrogant stupidity .

Yes which is why nuclear energy should be rolled out worldwide, then we can save our oil for things that actually require it. If oil was not being used to power cars and tractors and cities, then the remaining discovered oil reserves would probably last making plastics and medicine and fertilizer and the important stuff for 1000s of years into the future.

50% of the food grown is just wasted and thrown out. Universal nuclear energy = nearly free energy = refrigeration for the entire world and desalination for the entire world.