Thoughts on mega wind and solar projects

[jyoutz]

You can here as well but private lands let's them put in food plots, permanent stands (shooting houses). Good trails, use game cameras (without them growing legs) and grow trophies. Or so they think.
I personally know a group of 20 that lease 6400 acres in the boot heel (prime farm land) at insane costs for the big bucks that can be there.

When you hunt on public land you may sit in pumpkin patch once the sun comes up (orange required to hunt). Has lot do with people not wanting to walk far from a road/trail, mostly less than mile. There is a lot of public land with no hunters but it ain't easy to get in and harder to drag a deer out.
Personally I learned it is easier to take one in the yard and use the tractor.

Many of our game species such as elk cover many miles on a daily basis and hunters need to be able to cover ground to track them. They don’t stay confined to a 100 acre area like whitetail deer.

 

[Eagle1]

Many of our game species such as elk cover many miles on a daily basis and hunters need to be able to cover ground to track them. They don’t stay confined to a 100 acre area like whitetail deer.

Here it is ~300K of whitetail taken every year state wide. We now have a lottery for Elk in a few counties and most of the southern half has a bear draw.
I've seen a couple of Elk on my place, one young cow hung out with the cattle for a couple of months. I'm hopeful to hear a bull bugle here before I die. Don't care if I ever hunt one, lots of freezer meat in the deer population.

We have 3 million acres of Mark Twain but half of that is private land (like mine) within the forest boundaries.

 

[lman]

The Rio Grande Valley and the eastern plains have hundreds of thousands of farmland acreage producing more valuable crops than corn such as chiles, pecans, onions, melons, and dairy hay. NM isn’t dominated by desert, but has more area in the Rocky Mountains and Southern Great Plains than desert.

“New Mexico has over 24,000 farms covering approximately 39 to 43 million acres of land. The state boasts some of the largest average farm sizes in the country, with average operations ranging between 1,600 and 1,800+ acres. Key agricultural areas feature a mix of irrigated cropland, cattle ranches, and pecan orchards. [1, 2, 3, 4]”

USDA/NASS 2025 State Agriculture Overview for New Mexico

Sounds good. One good thing about my uncle's residence is you don't have to mow the yard since not much will grow there. His community is surrounded by thousands of acres of wasteland.

 

[jyoutz]

Sounds good. One good thing about my uncle's residence is you don't have to mow the yard since not much will grow there. His community is surrounded by thousands of acres of wasteland.

There’s no doubt that there are areas like that. NM is a big place being the 5th largest state in land area. There’s a lot of different vegetation types, elevations, and climatic zones.

 

[Duds13]

So much BS going on in NY. The so-called climate alarmists pushing for solar and wind farms don't really seem to give two poops about the environment. The state is totally ignoring areas where there are active bald eagle nests and other rare wildlife.

 

[Phil Timmons]

So much BS going on in NY. The so-called climate alarmists pushing for solar and wind farms don't really seem to give two poops about the environment. The state is totally ignoring areas where there are active bald eagle nests and other rare wildlife.

You have front row seats, right? Good to hear your perspective. I looked at it a little bit, and it looks like it (at least some of it) is from Canada interests who trade Hydro back and forth with NY?

btw, the Grid is ALWAYS about Money, First. Grid runs on Money, not so much Electricity. Sort of like the world's largest Cash Register system. Electricity goes out to some 100s of Millions of Meters, and Cash Flow comes in from everywhere.

 

[Duds13]

Yeah I'm just starting to read more about it. There is a young lady doing a LOT of work on it and calling out the state, ORES, and the DEC for their antics.

 

[etpm]

So the ponderance is if I set aside an acre or two for Corn -- can I feed that to them, (E100 Ethanol) and how do the numbers work out? The process (technical) is rather direct as any moonshiner can attest.

The best you can get from a still is E95 because 95% ethanol and 5% water is the azeotrope of water and ethanol and so has the lowest boiling point. Also, a pot still ain't gonna make E95 with the first run. You would need to distill several times. A reflux column still can make E95 in one distillation though. And you would need to get permission from the feds to run your still, even if it just for fuel.
Eric

 

[Eagle1]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

 

[jyoutz]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

Having tasted that stuff, I’ll stick with a good aged Kentucky bourbon.

 

[ponytug]

The best you can get from a still is E95 because 95% ethanol and 5% water is the azeotrope of water and ethanol and so has the lowest boiling point. Also, a pot still ain't gonna make E95 with the first run. You would need to distill several times. A reflux column still can make E95 in one distillation though. And you would need to get permission from the feds to run your still, even if it just for fuel.
Eric

Well, actually, that's true brandy or moonshine pot stills.

One of the nuances to how fuel ethanol is made is that the stills are constructed differently. Fuel ethanol still design is set up for a continuous 24x7 distillation production, not pot by pot. With the that construction, you get 100% ethanol out of the still, which is promptly blended some gasoline to keep it anhydrous, (plus making it non-potable), and stable, as you are correct it would otherwise absorb water to a 5% water/95% ethanol azeotrope.

Permission from the Feds is de minimus if the annual still production is under 10,000 gallons.

https://www.ttb.gov/system/files?file=images/pdfs/forms/f511074.pdf

There are lots of extras details for how to hydrate the cornflour and enzyme pretreatments to get all of the starch solublized, micronutrients, fermentation accelerators, choices for yeasts, and target ethanol concentration. For the still getting the fermented corn liquor (beer) degassed by removing the CO2 before it gets to the still, and for stripping the spent bottoms, evaporating the bottoms to strip off the water to go back to the beginning to add to the corn flour, and to take the solids out as wet distiller's grain solids, dried distiller's grain solids for animal feeds. On a small scale, having a plan for side stepping the evaporation process can save a chunk of energy and complexity.

If you have an interest, most ethanol plants run tours, and take an interest in visitors.

I'm not suggesting anyone shouldn't try, but I would suggest doing some research into the details. These days, it isn't exactly "uncle Bob's still" up the draw somewhere.

All the best,

Peter

 

[etpm]

With the that construction, you get 100% ethanol out of the still,

You cannot get 100% ethanol from any type of still. The nearly 96% ethanol must be further treated to remove the last bit of water. This is because the boiling point of 95.7 something % ethanol with the remainder being water boils at a lower temp that pure ethanol. Really. To make 100% ethanol the last bit of water must be removed using another method, such as a molecular sieve.
Eric

 

[MossRoad]

You cannot get 100% ethanol from any type of still. The nearly 96% ethanol must be further treated to remove the last bit of water. This is because the boiling point of 95.7 something % ethanol with the remainder being water boils at a lower temp that pure ethanol. Really. To make 100% ethanol the last bit of water must be removed using another method, such as a molecular sieve.
Eric

That's the way the ethanol plant here in South Bend works....

The ethanol produced at the South Bend, Indiana plant (operated by Verbio North America) is concentrated to approximately 95% alcohol by volume (ABV), or 190 proof, through conventional distillation. [1]
Following this, it is usually dehydrated to ~200 proof (essentially 100% alcohol) in a molecular sieve system before being denatured and shipped for fuel blending. [1, 2]

 

[Phil Timmons]

That's the way the ethanol plant here in South Bend works....

The ethanol produced at the South Bend, Indiana plant (operated by Verbio North America) is concentrated to approximately 95% alcohol by volume (ABV), or 190 proof, through conventional distillation. [1]
Following this, it is usually dehydrated to ~200 proof (essentially 100% alcohol) in a molecular sieve system before being denatured and shipped for fuel blending. [1, 2]

Yeah, and we can model that small and locally. Have some friends in Saint Louis doing this "small scale." So small locally, I can do this as a skid-mount, solar powered type system. Roll in and out of the trailer or pickup truck. It appears that final marginally "purity" level is not even that critical for ICE engine applications?

Focusing this back to tractors -- that is this site theme, yunno. You see what John Deere is calling their version of Large(r) Farm Tractors for Ethanol Fuel(s) - E98? I think in their case the remaining 2% is Methanol (please correct me if someone knows different). But consider how "pure" Henry Ford's Model T ethanol fuel was NOT. Where I am heading is that Close Enough is Good Enough. (again, welcome any corrections).

For me (and suspecting most anyone near the evolving edge) the Primary Mover and Power Source is going to be Renewable Electricity. The Ethanol are sort of just non-Oil options for the novelty and beyond the local grid small loads (eg. Farmall, and/or other old Tractor) that will be custom on-site rebuild with Ethanol being the intent from the start of the rebuild.

Here is John Deere's entre to the game. This allows a farm do its own fuel. On site. From its own surplus Corn. NO OIL.

 

[Phil Timmons]

I was thinking more along the way of moonshine or so. Seems like there is a market and pays better by the bottle.
No need to burn ethanol when you can sell or trade it . Like beef or vegetables.

Good point. As cheap local source fuel it is good for cheap local source fuel (duh, huh?)

As a sales, barter, or product it can be a LOT more valuable than the money involved.

Point well taken.

 

[Phil Timmons]

Yeah I'm just starting to read more about it. There is a young lady doing a LOT of work on it and calling out the state, ORES, and the DEC for their antics.

Yeah, I have been tracking her doings for a year or so. The small local aspects of things she represents are interesting -- some of the Solar stuff is little "out there."

But the real battle ahead I can see coming is not about energy this or that, but rather Humans v. Corporations. I would suspect she represents some of the Human side of the game board.

 

[Phil Timmons]

Mostly I think it arises from demand charges for distribution, and the last (pick a number) number of miles often gets congested. Implicit in that is that, yes, folks are still running HVAC systems in the central and southern part of the state until midnight-ish before the night time radiation cooling causes the air temperatures to drop. So, HVAC demand, plus a distribution surcharge.

Sorry for the slow response back. Figured this was a really good post you had, and was worth (my perspective) some more serious discussion.

Yeah, understand on the Thermal Lag aspects. Typically at Solar Noon is the most intense heat of the day, but like an oven warming up, the outdoor temperature and building cooling load keeps rising into the afternoon, typically up to about 4 PM, and then things stay warm(er) a while after. The Thermal Lag is generally dropping off by 9 PM?

[for anyone following along -- what we call "Solar Noon" -- is when the Sun is highest in the Sky -- which may or may not be local "Clock Noon." I think it they used to be same before Rail Roads and Time Zones, and the towne clocke and church bells matched the Sundial time, and each local town had their "own" local time.]

So the disparity between Solar Noon and Clock Noon (and all the rest of the day) can make what we see and talk about for (start / stop) Time of Use get a little wonky.

What is Solar Noon -- or I guess I should say WHEN is Solar Noon widely varies across the span from East to West of any given Time Zone (typically an hour wide or more) along with "daylight savings" offsetting things by an hour additionally.

But I am still stuck on why yours [TOU Peak] goes until Midnight.

California has inadvertently made a double mess of all this because part of the prior "solution" to use less TOTAL energy was "set back Thermostats." That helped create the late day and early evening "Rush Hour-ish" Peak to start with.

Now with Cheap and Surplus Solar PV -- it makes more sense to just turn on ALL the A/C (empty house or not) during the daily Solar PV Peak and chill the buildings down and "coast" into the evening? Sort of a physical Cold Air, Building and Contents "Thermal Battery?"

So, in general, yes, that is the math. Left out of that are a couple of factors I think.

The solar array needs to be close enough to a main transmission line to make a feeder line possible, and cost effective.

The transmission line has to have free capacity to take the solar output.

Then you have to account for the losses between the generation site and the customers.

Then you have to account for the transmission, distribution, administrative costs for all of the electric companies between the solar array and the customer.

All of this gets to why certain solar sites are more profitable, are desirable. You can put one anywhere, but due to NIMBY for transmission lines, or utilities unwilling to take power that they don't control, it doesn't mean you can get the power off the property. In the future, that may mean that the PV farm converts the electricity into something valuable on site, like converting biomass to liquid fuel / CO2 to natural gas / hydrogen / mini steel mill / aluminum plant. I could spin a bunch of uses if the 20yr kWh cost is on the order of $1/kWh. Most planners are still coloring well within the lines to my way of thinking.

Understood. Grid Engineer for too many years, now. Those are cost components of a Retail Price. But none that is not about Time-of-Production and Time-of-Use alignment?

Putting PV powered hydrogen plants in the Permian basin would enable the shipment of crude gas/oil with the hydrogen needed for refining in the downstream refining, creating more finished hydrocarbons per barrel of oil input.

Well (hahaha, Oil Well). Hydrogen for off-site use . . . maybe not. Have-been-there-done-that on some of that. But whole different topic and post.

But as a straight up, if you put the PV on your property to charge the vehicles on the farm, and for farm power, yes.

Sure. We have that part down easy. And largely avoiding batteries -- HUGE money bonus to do this without Large Batteries.

The limits to gasoline/ ethanol blends gets into seals and tubing above E15. You can build an E100 engine; but it will require different materials. E100 is higher octane, but lower energy, so that is also a tuning issue, but these are all well researched and solved problems. Fermentation is a bit more complicated than tossing some corn in water these days, and farm sized ethanol fuel plants are less efficient due to things like increased energy losses due to rather small plant sizes, but you could very much do it. Regulatory paperwork for ethanol can vary by state and by output, so that may be an added cost.

For our operation - Ethanol would not be a primary source -- instead sort of novelty (by intent), that meets some of "spec" theme parts* (of local Ethanol v. Corporate Oil) of this game. For Ethanol -- not working towards nor any desire for perfection -- in our case, "Good Enough is Good Enough." Will explain below.*

If you decide to go down that path, I would very much keep biogas methane as part of that project. Biogas as tractor fuel requires gas cleaning and compression, but again, doable.

I think a lot of the on farm fuel generation gets into what can be done at a very particular site, with low labor inputs, and low capital inputs that make it pencil out.

There's a large dairy (Fair Oaks) in Indiana that makes biogas to run the dairy and exports excess gas off the property. I know of a few sites in the Midwest where this happens, but it seems to revolve around one farm having the wherewithal to build it for their operation, and for many sites, the optimal biomass capacity number creates excess biogas that can be sold to neighboring properties or businesses.

Whether these operations pencil out gets into the nitty gritty of the cost of capital, labor, and material, vs the alternatives. It doesn't pencil out for everyone. I worked on a ranch that built one in the seventies, and I know simple biogas fermenters on farms were widespread in rural Indian and China in the sixties. It is an old idea, but not without issues.

That one. I do not think I can touch that. Have done Bio-Gas (humanure, no less) up into the 5 MW generation range at a local sewer treatment site. It works okay-ish -- the fuel has some issues with Sulfur. Bacteria and such make some nasty.

Really reminded me of using Flare Gas on refinery sites -- the EPA was pushing us back when I worked Petro-Chem and Refinery to bring Flare Gas back into the plant and burn in Process. We did so, but there was some "ickk," about all that. (Flare Gas has some real nasty -- there is a reason it is up on a 300 foot tower).

Like I say, the Bio-Gas stuff -- it is okay, and have studied the small stove site use that is somewhat popular in India -- but not anything I would want to touch on an experimental site for rated* food production.

Part of the model we are working from includes Veggie-Vegan*, along with a BUNCH of (no Chem, no Genetic, on and on) other Marketing Aspects. Using Bio-Gas from a (Purity Perspective) Animal Prison-Torture Holocaust Site -- is going to harm the brand.

* [Yeah, I know, if folks following along do not get this, they just do not get this. It is not because you are smart or inspired or somehow better. You just do not understand the marketing. Maybe think if you were producing and selling for an Orthodox Jewish wealthy clientele. And they want Kosher. And are happy to pay premium for Kosher. You are going to produce Kosher. Or Muslims with Halal. Or even better example -- Americans with eating Dogs and Cats. If you want to sell food in the US -- you do NOT include parts and pieces of Dogs and Cats. This is the same game, with a different name.]

Yeah, I've been involved in this for a few years.

All the best,

Peter

Understood. Thanks, muchly.

 

[ponytug]

You cannot get 100% ethanol from any type of still. The nearly 96% ethanol must be further treated to remove the last bit of water. This is because the boiling point of 95.7 something % ethanol with the remainder being water boils at a lower temp that pure ethanol. Really. To make 100% ethanol the last bit of water must be removed using another method, such as a molecular sieve.
Eric

My apologies. I did leave out more than a few details of a fuel ethanol operation, so, what you write is totally true in general.

However, the design of continuous ethanol stills in fuel plants have tandem molecular sieve banks at the top of the still, integral to the still itself to dehydrate the ethanol vapor at the top of the still while the ethanol vapor is hot, and then recycles some of the 100% ethanol vapor back through the other bank of 3A sieves to regenerate the sieves, while the other is on duty and dehydrating the main flow. Having the sieves integral to the distillation column conserves heat, makes for a short and an energy efficient recycle of the regeneration water laden ethanol vapor down column, but not into the bottom, and eliminates other potential sources of water contamination. Downstream of the molecular sieves, and as soon as the 100% ethanol exits the still and is cooled, the gasoline is blended in to make a stable liquid (azeotrope). As I wrote above, there are lots of nuances in fuel ethanol production for process efficiency, both by the design choices, and in the operation in the details of grain milling, enzymes, yeasts, additives (e.g. antifoam, micronutrients), target final ethanol, and issues like local water properties.

I think for any heat related process, attention to details is critical for minimizing thermal losses, and distillation columns are a great example of this, whether in an ethanol plant or an oil refinery. Some of the early ethanol plants (I remember one western Minnesota somewhere near Granite Falls) spring to mind, as they did not have many of the process efficiencies designed in, and as a result have been hard pressed to be profitable due to the thermal and process (e.g. dehydration) losses.

I think of the business fuel ethanol production as death by a thousand little cuts. I've seen moonshine made with a pot, a shallow bowl, and a cup; a very thermally efficient operation for 60% ethanol. One could also do it pretty easily in a 55 gallon drum over a wood fire in a pinch.

However, in my experience, as a larger scale business, there are lots of opportunities for both winning, and losing, and as the product, ethanol, is the same, there realistically isn't any way to charge a premium, so the most operational and fiscally efficient (e.g. hedging), well run operators are the ones who win.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Or a coal generating plant. Those are truly ugly monstrosities.

But not when you are collecting a paycheck from said facility! They were beautiful then?

 

[ponytug]

Sorry for the slow response back. Figured this was a really good post you had, and was worth (my perspective) some more serious discussion.

Yeah, understand on the Thermal Lag aspects. Typically at Solar Noon is the most intense heat of the day, but like an oven warming up, the outdoor temperature and building cooling load keeps rising into the afternoon, typically up to about 4 PM, and then things stay warm(er) a while after. The Thermal Lag is generally dropping off by 9 PM?

[for anyone following along -- what we call "Solar Noon" -- is when the Sun is highest in the Sky -- which may or may not be local "Clock Noon." I think it they used to be same before Rail Roads and Time Zones, and the towne clocke and church bells matched the Sundial time, and each local town had their "own" local time.]

So the disparity between Solar Noon and Clock Noon (and all the rest of the day) can make what we see and talk about for (start / stop) Time of Use get a little wonky.

What is Solar Noon -- or I guess I should say WHEN is Solar Noon widely varies across the span from East to West of any given Time Zone (typically an hour wide or more) along with "daylight savings" offsetting things by an hour additionally.

But I am still stuck on why yours [TOU Peak] goes until Midnight.

California has inadvertently made a double mess of all this because part of the prior "solution" to use less TOTAL energy was "set back Thermostats." That helped create the late day and early evening "Rush Hour-ish" Peak to start with.

Now with Cheap and Surplus Solar PV -- it makes more sense to just turn on ALL the A/C (empty house or not) during the daily Solar PV Peak and chill the buildings down and "coast" into the evening? Sort of a physical Cold Air, Building and Contents "Thermal Battery?"



Understood. Grid Engineer for too many years, now. Those are cost components of a Retail Price. But none that is not about Time-of-Production and Time-of-Use alignment?



Well (hahaha, Oil Well). Hydrogen for off-site use . . . maybe not. Have-there-done-there on some of that. But whole different topic and post.



Sure. We have that part down easy. And largely avoiding batteries -- HUGE money bonus to do this without Large Batteries.



For our operation - Ethanol would not be a primary source -- instead sort of novelty (by intent), that meets some of "spec" theme parts* (of local Ethanol v. Corporate Oil) of this game. For Ethanol -- not working towards nor any desire for perfection -- in our case, "Good Enough is Good Enough." Will explain below.*




That one. I do not think I can touch that. Have done Bio-Gas (humanure, no less) up into the 5 MW generation range at a local sewer treatment site. It works okay-ish -- the fuel has some issues with Sulfur. Bacteria and such make some nasty.

Really reminded me of using Flare Gas on refinery sites -- the EPA was pushing us back when I worked Petro-Chem and Refinery to bring Flare Gas back into the plant and burn in Process. We did so, but there was some "ickk," about all that. (Flare Gas has some real nasty -- there is a reason it is up on a 300 foot tower).

Like I say, the Bio-Gas stuff -- it is okay, and have studied the small stove site use that is somewhat popular in India -- but not anything I would want to touch on an experimental site for rated* food production.

Part of the model we are working from includes Veggie-Vegan*, along with a BUNCH of (no Chem, no Genetic, on and on) other Marketing Aspects. Using Bio-Gas from a (Purity Perspective) Animal Prison-Torture Holocaust Site -- is going to harm the brand.

* [Yeah, I know, if folks following along do not get this, they just do not get this. It is not because you are smart or inspired or somehow better. You just do not understand the marketing. Maybe think if you were producing and selling for an Orthodox Jewish wealthy clientele. And they want Kosher. And are happy to pay premium for Kosher. You are going to produce Kosher. Or Muslims with Halal. Or even better example -- Americans with eating Dogs and Cats. If you want to sell food in the US -- you do NOT include parts and pieces of Dogs and Cats. This is the same game, with a different name.]




Understood. Thanks, muchly.

You are welcome, and thanks.

Great post, and thanks for sharing your experience.

I live in a cooler area of California, but I've been down south and in the Central Valley, and yes, the thermal lag does get pretty late in the evening before it finally cools off. So, that is one item, but it gets to how can one power the 4pm-midnight segment, and how to better align production with consumption. Peak pricing is a crude lever, and unfortunately not that great a tool for the wealthier customers. Based on observation over the years, people are slow to change their habits, rather like the parable of boiling frogs slowly. Perhaps high gasoline prices will be the nudge for folks to change habits, but most people tend to hunker down in turmoil and uncertain times, so who knows?

Your point is well taken about precooling homes, and yes more people ought to do it to some extent, but there is the issue that if the house gets precooled noon to three, there is a greater temperature difference for heat absorption in the hotter parts of the day. I do wish Ice Energy had made a go of their Ice Bear (think a hot tub used to make ice overnight and used to cool the house via the normal HVAC during the heat of the day). I would also point out that very few California homes are well sealed against air infiltration/losses and very few were built with much of any insulation, so HVAC power tends to be correlated very strongly with outside temperatures, as the homes get heated by infiltration, and lose cool air by leakage. Our home leaked at 4,000cfm in a standard door test before, we addressed the air losses. We still have some that I know about. I have no reason to think our home is worse than average. Like many homes here, the house has R-11 wall insulation, and had the same in the attic before I bumped the attic up to R-60, and then R-75. Large sections of the house had R-1 insulation when we bought it. My point being California homes are built in ways that make them especially prone to matching the outside conditions, and that drives the HVAC curves late into the night in the warmer areas of the state. Unfortunately, the economic ROI on additional wall insulation is somewhere between forever and never. We did it to reduce air infiltration and improve the resistance to wildfires.

Electricity in California definitely has a strong midday power generation excess from solar that hasn't yet been better absorbed by time dependent uses, or batteries, but that peak pricing regime is driving battery deployments, and I think, will continue to drive battery deployments for a long time for both cost, and reliability issues. I was mostly kidding about hydrogen; it is really hard to work with, on the other hand, it makes sense for the grid to get significantly "overpaneled" with solar to account for cloudy weather, low solar angles, etc., so I could see some seasonal uses of "free/excess" power to soak up the "unused", e.g. hydrogen.

Yes, I agree, on farm ethanol just has to combust reasonably well. I do think that given the comparative cost of tractor engine rebuilds, the bar is somewhere above good enough.

A relative was in biogas power for sewage plants for a while and I was fascinated to learn that the economics there was for no post processing of the gas, just burn it in a cheap Chevy V8 and toss the engine at the end of the year(!). I have been around farm operations that did simple things like steel wool to scrub the sulfur, and compression to dewater the gas for better usage in engines, but never anywhere that went to the effort to cool the gas enough to eliminate the CO2. The simple processing was not even necessary for cooking and lighting, though the mantle lamps were somewhat dimmer. I think that the comparison to reinjecting flare gas into the process is apt. Sulfur compounds are hard on everything.

Yes, if you have a vegan/veggie brand going, biogas is going to be problematic and definitely less marketable, but anything with nitrogen and cellulose can make biogas.

I think if one can stomach the off farm production of batteries and PV panels, then one could electrify. However, I look at the long days preparing the soil, and planting in the Spring, and harvesting in the Fall when farmers always seem to be working every second they can. Battery swaps will take time, and the farm has to have enough solar to charge the farm's batteries in hour in cloudy weather. Time waits for no one. So, I am a bit of a skeptic for electric tractors. I have vivid memories of racing to harvest before rain moved in. Personally, I think ethanol is a better match as it could be stockpiled from a year round production and then drawn down when the farm is in flat out run mode. A diesel retrofitted to spark ignition isn't a bad match, but I suspect that there will be a drop in HP, unless folks get fancy. Then again, if it were simple, everyone would doing it, right?

All the best, Peter