To achieve UK’s net zero ambitious there is a requirement for the Agriculture and Food (AgriFood) sector to move to cleaner technologies. This includes the UK Government investing £80m in electrification technologies through the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge. From July to August 2021, KTN consulted its AgriFood networks to identify opportunities and challenges related to the adoption and the implementation of Power Electronics, Electric Machines and Drives (PEMD) in the AgriFood Sector. Recorded on 7 October 2021, this webinar highlights the outcomes of this consultation with a broad range of stakeholders from farmers to construction and agricultural machinery companies who represent 34 organisations. KTN's Agri team also explore the obstacles and opportunities to the adoption of PEMD in the Agricultural sector.

1. www.ktn-uk.org
Pedro Carvalho and Simon Baty
Driving the Electric Revolution
Engage with...
Electrification of the AgriFood Sector
7 October 2021

2. Objectives
• To achieve UK’s net-zero ambitious there is an urgency
for the AgriFood sector to move to cleaner technologies.
• The aim of the consultation (Jul to Aug 2021) was to identify
opportunities and challenges related to adoption of Power Electronics,
Electric Machines and Drives (PEMD) in the AgriFood sector.
PEMD are the technologies that enable the control and delivery of electrical energy.
The UK government is investing £80 million in electrification technologies
through the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge.

3. Consultation methodology
• Online questionnaire - 20 respondents
• Linked IN (Pedro, Simon and TFP Group)
• AgriFood and PEMD newsletters
• KTN’s AgriFood and PEMD mailing lists
• Zoom interviews - 15 interviewees
• Selected by the AgriFood and the
Enabling technologies team
A total of 35 people from
33 Organisations were consulted

4. AgriFood Sectors Represented
12%
30%
54%
4%
Food processing and manufacturing
Livestock and Aquaculture
Plants and Crops
Other

5. Farmers/ Producers
Cooperatives
Food
Manufacturers
Automation/
Robotics
Construction and
Agricultural Machinery
Agriculture Digital Decision
Support Software
Research and
Technology
Organisations
Engineering and
Electronics
components
Levy
Board
R&D Public Funder
Consultees’ Affiliations
Agri-consultants

6. Bottleneck – Agricultural Machinery

7. Biggest Challenges to the Electrification of the AgriFood Sector
- Electricity network constraints in rural areas (e.g. lack charging stations)
- High power requirement (e.g. harvesting/combining, ploughing)
- Long charging times
- Low power density of current batteries
- Lack of engineering back up/knowledge/infrastructure to repair
- Lack of vision to redesign the tractor (i.e. simply replacing the energy source)
- Poor internet connectivity in rural areas
- High price and low robustness of some small electric agriculture machines
- Lack of robust and reliable mid-size vehicles for on-farm tasks (e.g. inexistence of pickup trucks)

8. Opportunities for PEMD Manufacturers/ Suppliers
- High precision tasks are better with electric motors (e.g. such as spraying)
- Autonomous electrified robotics solutions (including swarms, e.g. weeding, spraying)
- On-farm energy generation and storage (e.g. solar, wind and anaerobic digestors)
- Electric implements for tractors (e.g. drills)
- On-farm charging stations to be available to the wider rural community and others
- Use of bidirectional chargers on farm (use of the battery of farm vehicles to stabilise the grid)
- Electrification of small and “light “vehicles with low duty cycles (e.g. forklifts, telehandlers, quad bikes)
- Smaller tractors for small holders is possible now (better suited to markets where farm sizes are smaller)

9. Threats to Electrification of Agriculture
- Cost of adoption
- Hydrogen alternatives
- Gas powered alternatives
- Potentially more difficult to repair in-situ by farmers
- Autonomous alternatives may require new expertise
- Lithium mining green credentials

10. Sectors and interventions that can help the electrification of Agriculture
Sectors that could help the adoption of PEMD in Agriculture
- Business to Consumer companies with long standing expertise in batteries and motors
- Advances in marine and aviation sectors for alternatives to fossil fuels
- Heavy duty vehicles industry (e.g. HGV and construction)
Interventions that can help the adoption of PEMD in the agricultural sector
- Policy
- Set out standards early on
- Grants for development of electric alternatives
- Subsides/ incentives for adoption of electric alternatives
- On-farm demonstrations (e.g. in Universities and research centres)

11. Final Considerations
Swarm robotics
- Electric powered light weight
autonomous
- One or very few functions
Electric tractors
- Replacement of fossil fuel by batteries
Electric Implements
- Replacing hydraulically and/or
mechanically powered implements by
electric drives
PEMD Alternative Net zero impact PEMD usage
Market
opportunity
Swarm robotics Medium Medium High
Electric tractors High High Low
Electric Implements Low High Medium

12. What’s next?
‘Driving Electric Revolution
in AgriFood’ report
Pedro Carvalho
Knowledge Transfer Manager - Plants & Crops
Simon Baty
Knowledge Transfer Manager - Food