For all their trouble with the weather and other forces beyond control, farmers have become some of America’s scrappiest business people. They’re always looking for a means to be more profitable and save money for the inevitable bad year. When something goes well at a farm down the street, it isn’t long before other farmers hear about it and adopt the practice for themselves. It’s no surprise that solar PV has taken off in the agricultural space, solar developers say. It just makes sense (tweet this).
Castle Rock Vineyards, a table grape grower in Delano, Calif., effectively took its cooler-and-storage facility off the grid when it installed a 2-acre solar array adjacent to rows of grape vines. Nearby Peter Rabbit Farms, a fourth-generation vegetable grower, heard about the success and soon took bids from installers for its own array. REC Solar built the farm’s 358-kW system, which provides enough power to shave an estimated $80,000 off the farm’s annual utility bills.
“I’ve been in this industry for 12 years, and farmers have gone from skeptical of to confident in solar technology,” says Ryan Park, director of business development at REC Solar, which has more than 9,000 solar installations nationwide. “They know this stuff works.”
Peter Rabbit Farms joined a growing group of more than 300 California farmers and ranchers who use solar energy to reduce utility bills. Agriculture represents nearly 30% of California’s commercial solar capacity, according to PV Solar Report, and experts anticipate the sector will continue to gain strength. Similar installations are popping up in Vermont, and there is no mistaking why.
“Farmers generally have open land,” says Andrew Savage, director of communications and public affairs at AllEarth Renewables in Vermont. “They’re acutely aware of energy costs in terms of their business, and they’re looking for ways to be more viable. Frankly, if you’re not a business-minded farmer at this point, you’re probably struggling for survival.”
Developers say the finances work particularly well on farms, which have good years and notoriously bad ones. A drought may wreak havoc on a farm’s revenue for years. To insulate themselves, farmers often put good-year profits into bonds, which can give them 2.5 to 3% returns. But solar is a lucrative alternative more farmers are discovering. In effect, they can have bonds on the roof of their barns.
Park of REC Solar illustrated the concept. He says a solar system in California that costs $70,000 after tax credits could produce $14,000 worth of electricity annually. Many systems break even around the five-year mark, although that’s dependent on many variables. After that, it’s 10 to 20% returns from a safe investment that comes with tax benefits.
“They’re willing to put their money in a money market account. They’re putting it away in bonds and CDs,” Park says incredulously. “Oh my goodness: If you can invest in solar and get five times those returns, why wouldn’t you do that? They’re realizing the benefit.”
The Land
Farmers and farm owners often lease land. In places with vast agricultural space, land may go for as little as $35 an acre, AllEarth’s Savage says. A solar array, then, is a gainful alternative. “We’re certainly not advocating for the wholesale transformation of land for solar, but more the mixed use of solar in agricultural communities,” he says.
The company’s AllSun Solar Tracker, a pole-mounted dual-axis tracker, rises among 130 acres of apple trees at Champlain Orchards in Shoreham, Vt. The farm picks, packs and processes 3 million pounds of apples annually. The entire operation is now 100% renewable in its electric use.
“As farmers and business-owners that value independence, we wanted to do something that better uses our local resources,” says Bill Suhr, who owns the orchard with his wife Andrea Scott. “This solar allows us to do just that.”
The University of Massachusetts has built arrays like Champlain’s for study. Its systems are placed on marginal soils, centralized towers or sloping roof structures. The research project has three goals: It examines the results of implementing ground-mounted solar technology on farmland while simultaneously producing a crop. It produces a power source to offset usage at the research farm. Finally, the project demonstrates how this type of PV can be implemented by a farm cost-effectively.
The Neighbors
The town of Hatfield, Mass. — population 3,249 — has the highest number of solar installations per capita in the state. Among residents with panels is Bob Wagner, the senior policy and program advisor for American Farmland Trust, a national organization that helps protect farmland. The trust hasn’t taken an official stand on solar development, but Wagner has his own thoughts — and 30 panels on his roof.
“If you’re going to put a solar array on farmland, then every effort should be made to do so in a way that the land can be easily reclaimed for agriculture,” he says. “Therefore, the solar array becomes a temporary use of the land, for the production of power from the sun as opposed to food.”
His ideas were highlighted recently because Hatfield is embroiled in a solar development controversy. At issue is a 2.4-MW installation planned for a 35-acre farm. Nineteen houses have a view of the land, which is zoned agriculture-residential, and the neighbors aren’t happy. “This is a power plant, a major one,” Michael Pill, an attorney representing the neighbors, recently told the Daily Hampshire Gazette. “It does not belong in a residential neighborhood.”
While the scale of the plant can be debated, the concerns of the residents have prompted the Hatfield Agricultural Advisory Commission, chaired by Wagner, to create guidelines for solar installations on farmland. They appear here, shortened for space:
- To the extent possible, arrays should be placed on existing farm buildings.
- If a land-based array is considered, use non-cropland areas.
- Every effort should be made to avoid prime farmland soils.
- If prime soil is to be used, keep disturbances of the existing soil to a minimum.
The commission believes these guidelines will help farmers benefit from and contribute to the production of renewable energy, while reducing the long-term impact to irreplaceable soils. The commission understands that solar is a profitable prospect for farmers. From Wagner’s perspective, a carefully installed solar array — what amounts to a temporary crop — is a lot better than a residential development. “That 35 acres could easily be 20 new homes,” he says. “Then that farmland is gone forever.”
The Wires
Nathan Charles joined Paradise Energy Solutions, a Pennsylvania-based solar installer, about a year ago. Since then, he’s designed more than 20 farmland solar arrays, including a recent installation at Ferrell Farms, a grain-and-poultry farm in Henderson, Md. The system will pay for itself in 5 years, with a return on investment of nearly 20%.
Rural areas and smaller farms can present interesting challenges for installers, Charles says. For instance, while there may be plenty of land to work with or a big rooftop on which to install – sometimes at the perfect pitch thanks to common barn design – the electrical infrastructure can be unusual, to say the least.
Farms have different requirements for power and, in a rush to get the crop, handy farmers have made-do. A history of home-spun electricity modifications may accumulate, and an old farm could be littered from chicken coop to corn crib with faulty wiring and code violations. Part of Charles’ job is to make the solar power play nicely with the utility lines.
“As much as we’re able to, we try to bring things up to code,” Charles says. “Sometimes we just have to work around certain things, though, because it’s not feasible.”
Farms may also lie alongside transmission lines that have challenging characteristics. Three-phase service allows installers to transmit power more easily, but a lot of rural areas aren’t equipped with it. Charles was working on a large farm recently with a 480-V open delta line, which he says is unusual but not necessarily bad.
“Rural systems, in my experience, tend to have fewer engineering requirements,” Charles says. “They tend to have larger existing services. Although it might be unusual, it’s easier to work within the scope of that.”
The Dirt
Farms are dusty places. Cows can kick up enough dirt to affect an array’s output, and the only thing at stake is the whole industry’s credibility. Developers say engineers must account for dust accumulation when they run models for a system’s output.
“The reason we’re getting the momentum we are in the agricultural space is because there have been a lot of success stories early on,” REC Solar’s Ryan Park says. “Farmers were getting the production the solar companies estimated. If you’re overstating the system, word will get around.”
Charles sees a lot of soiling happening on overshot roofs, popular on farms for their ventilation characteristics. Unfortunately, the exhaust from the barn works to bring dirt to a resting place on panels. The problem is less urgent with many ground-mount systems, he says, which may be farther away from farm activity.
Smart modeling and an occasional cleaning should allay concerns and give farmers something to talk about at future industry events, where REC Solar and others often set up shop, waiting for the next farmer to consider sun power.
Farmers are industrious people. They have shifted their crops toward organics, opening a new market. They have joined community-supported agricultural groups (CSAs), letting neighbors buy rights to a certain take from the land and eliminating the middle man – all for higher profits. They have even installed methane digesters to create energy from manure. Now, they’re harvesting the sun.
“I mean, heck, we call them solar farms,” Savage says. “It’s a very natural extension for them.” SPW
Read related article, “Farmland Solar: 6 Topics To Think About,” here.
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