LBL_LOGO LBL_LOGO

On purchasing a new tractor, have you stopped to think which is the one that would spend less fuel oil during its service life? Which is the most efficient one?

IDAE and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment have developed a methodology to classify farming tractors according to their energy efficiency (as it happens with electric appliances and cars).

The said classification has been achieved in OEDC official laboratories.

Go over the classification again and get informed about what you are going to buy from the energy point of view. Bear in mind that the Ministry of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Affairs through Royal Decree 457/2010 (Aids to the renewal of the national stock of agricultural machinery), gives incentives to the purchase of new, more efficient tractors by increasing the base sum of the aid by 30 euros/HP those classified under energy efficiency category A and by 10 euros/HP for those classified under category B, according to the charts published on its website. 

The Energy Saving and Efficiency Strategy Action Plan in Spain (E4) includes Agriculture, Fishing and Farming as one of the strategic action sectors; it  reached the figure of 3,270 ktoe in year 2010, which represented 3.3% of the end-use energy consumption in Spain that year.

Within this consumption, the one relating to self-propelled machinery in agriculture and farming involved 53%, most of which was accounted for the use of tractors in cultivation and tilling, and therefore, the cutback in energy consumption will be largely given by the improvement in the energy efficiency of these activities.

Upon IDAE and the Ministry of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Affairs’ initiative, it was proposed to envisage energy efficiency criteria in the Renewal Plans for tractors to be undertaken by the administration. This made it compulsory to develop a cataloguing procedure of farming tractors according to their energy efficiency to further give priority to the public aids on purchasing more efficient tractors. A methodology for the said energy classification has been developed with the help of a team of professors of the Technical School of Agricultural Engineering and of Industrial Engineering of the Polytechnics University of Madrid.

The grading is based on the data obtained from official OEDC laboratories which measure capacity and fuel consumption data, and which have enabled the Agricultural Mechanics Station of the Ministry of the Environment, and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) to classify the farming tractors that are marketed in Spain according to their energy efficiency.

This will provide farmers with simple, useful and efficient information of the tractor they are going to purchase from an energy point of view, with a method comparing the energy efficiency of a large part of the models present on the Spanish market.

Methodology for classifying tractors according to their energy efficiency

A c_kt rate has been calculated from various specific tractor consumption values. The energy efficiency classification is done according to the quotient between the  c_kt   and the nominal capacity, which is a factor to take into account in comparative analysis. (Tractors’ specific consumption decreases as capacity increases).   

The following figure shows the point cloud of c_kt rate coordinates with respect to nominal capacity.

The distribution of the models in the various intervals depending on index  c_kt and of its nominal capacity has been sorted out into five stripes, from A to E.

The intervals used in this classification are half-closed and always favour the classification of a mode whose ckt value is over a frontier line with the most efficient interval. The result of this classification in 2011 is shown in the figure where 421 models of studied tractors have been distributed into categories.

According to the capacity levels and kind of driving force, the 421 analysed tractors are distributed as follows:

Tractor models on the list are those that have been tested according to the procedure explained above, and with the data of the regulations in hand. It has been concluded that all of them belong to one of the five energy ratings.
 

There may be differences between the models on this list as regards the one published by the Ministry of the Environment, and Rural and Marine Affairs. This is due to the fact that all of the tested models are on IDAE’s list (which has actually been classified with the data above) even though they may not be traded in Spain at a given stage. On the other hand, the Ministry’s list only shows the tested models that are traded in Spain. Therefore the ones entitled to the allowances in RENOVE Plan are those found on the web site of the Ministry of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Affairs with categories A & B in the energy efficiency section.