sustainable innovation
Self-driving Electric Tractors
As a showcase for sustainability innovation, the Deer Ridge Sustainability Project will also feature other groundbreaking new technologies to support renewable energy and sustainable land management.
Deer Ridge aims to partner with companies that are deploying new technologies designed to lower environmental impacts in building design, land management, energy efficiency and water use.
For example, the Academy is in conversation with a California startup that is helping farms to become greener and more profitable. This company, Monarch, is introducing the world’s first fully electric, self-driving tractor.
The tractor can be programmed to perform tasks such as plowing, harvesting and mowing. To operate for ten hours, the tractor needs a four to five hour charge from the fully renewable and sustainable Deer Ridge microgrid.
The tractor is directed through a mobile phone app by a remote operator. The self-driving vehicle has sensors that can detect farm workers, animals and crops and prevent collisions. The tractor collects data during operation and provides farmers information on field and crop health, irrigation leaks as well as yield prospects.
According to Monarch, one electric tractor saves the carbon emissions of 17 gasoline cars. It also protects the health of the soil as diesel tractors regularly leak oil into the fields. The opportunity for the environment is massive: There are currently more than four million diesel tractors in the U.S.
The first Monarch tractors are currently entering farms in California, Washington, and Oregon. As we are transforming the golf course into an organic vineyard, we are looking forward to soon seeing a Monarch tractor plowing its way at Deer Ridge, too.
