Superintendents share their thoughts on the current state of battery-powered equipment

Does your course use battery-powered equipment? Do you see a future where your entire stable of equipment runs off battery power? Or, will battery-powered tools remain on the sidelines, behind gas-powered equipment?

We asked and these five agronomists answered, giving their perspectives on the present and future of battery-powered equipment on the golf course.

Eric McPherson, CGCS

Director of Green and Grounds, Omaha (Neb.) CC

“We would love to (use battery-powered equipment), but we have an old electrical system in our shop and just don’t have the capacity for that right now. If and when we’re able to get that corrected, I’ll be interested in doing demos of just about anything. I think we’d mainly be interested in handheld tools such as string trimmers and backpack blowers and then some of the smaller autonomous mowers for rough mowing. The idea of using the mowers in more out-off-the-way rough areas and the consistency they can produce just fascinates me.”

Jim Myers, CGCS

Golf Course Superintendent, Columbia Edgewater CC, Portland, Ore.

“We do use a bit of battery-operated tools, when applicable. We use handheld blowers, chainsaws, hedge pruners, lights for lighting up bunkers during the LPGA event we host, a pole saw and weed eaters.

The team uses all of them for different reasons, but one main reason is we had a homeowner complaint about noise, so we did a decibel study to understand noise decibels in distance from the homeowner’s house. We now use a handheld blower in that area before 8 a.m., and our greensmower can switch to battery mode to transport when it passes by the house before 8 a.m. or if we need to complete a task in the area of the homes.

Also, we use mini battery-operated chainsaws to cut small branches of trees because they’re lightweight, much like our hedge trimmer.

I will say that the industry and technology aren’t totally there yet to go fully battery-operated. The battery-operated backpack blowers are not strong enough to handle the process of blowing cores or heavy sand during aerification or heavy clippings after cutting thick rough after a televised event. Fall leaf cleanup is a real challenge with battery-operated backpack blowers, but I’m sure time and technology will change at some point.”

Erin Stevens, CGCS, MG

Director of Agronomy, Coral Creek Club, Placida, Fla.

“I think (electric power) has its place everywhere. I use battery-powered equipment around the clubhouse and pro shop areas, especially where we do not want to have a high impact of noise or disturb the membership experience. But with that said, I haven’t fully gone battery powered. We’re pretty remote. We have no noise ordinances, and we get a lot more out of our gas-powered equipment. I have blowers, hedge trimmers and things of that nature that are battery-powered and they are useful depending on the area. If there’s something that we have to do midday, then it’s like, ‘OK, let’s opt for the battery.’”

Bubba Wright

Director of Agronomy, Big Cedar Lodge, Ridgedale, Mo.

“For us, you have to have a common sense approach, so we’re certainly going to dip our toes into battery power as soon as we see that it’s efficient enough to meet the expectations of our ownership group and our guests. We do have some battery-powered equipment, but until it performs in an area that is equal to or better than gas-powered equipment, we haven’t quite dipped our toes in it that much.”

Shaun Marcellus

Superintendent, Wanumetonomy G&CC, Middletown, R.I.

“I’m not a believer in it. I’ve done some research on just where they get the lithium batteries and, I understand trying to be green and safe in the environment, but with where the lithium comes from and how it’s mined, to me it doesn’t make any sense.

It’s almost like you’re more polluting the environment, getting that battery. I haven’t seen any real data that says this is safer or this and that because I want to know what happens when the battery’s done.

For (superintendents) I know there are battery-powered triplexes and things like that, which are fine if you’re in a community where you’ve got to be quiet, and you mow for three hours, get the job done and off you go. But everything comes at a cost. At some point, you have to figure out how to dispose of these (batteries), and I don’t think anybody knows. They want to say that we’re trying to be environmentally friendly, but they don’t have the answer for that yet.”

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