Pinkowski: Standard California almond plot size is 75 acres
Nico Pinkowski · The ‘brutal reality’ of scaling low-carbon fertilizer · Jul 15, 2026 · at 10:56
Nico Pinkowski, CEO of electrified fertilizer startup Nitricity, explains why the company had to scale up its pilot reactor capacity to conduct viable field trials with California growers.
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“The California standard plot size for almonds, for example, is 75 acres. It's like this rectangle that's 75 acres, and sometimes you can get 25 acre blocks, but really, like, that's what you need, and 75 acres needs a lot of product, and so the minimum pilot size that you need to build in order to even produce enough for a 75 acre plot is pretty big.”
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Pinkowski: Fertilizer accounts for 5% to 7% of global emissions
“Today, fertilizer uses coal or natural gas and accounts for about five to seven percent of global emissions if you account for the manufacturing and the field application emissions.”
Pinkowski: Distributed on-farm fertilizer tech requires near-zero maintenance to pencil out
“You need really, really reliable technology that virtually never needs to be serviced for that to pencil out.”
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“Something as simple as a manifold actually can be a total showstopper.”
Pinkowski: Pilot plants exist to build operational safety, not just test tech
“But the pilot is more than just to prove the technology can work. The pilot is your team's opportunity to practice running a factory safely and reliably. And that organizationally, you are ready to build your first-of-a-kind commercial factory.”