The Solar Farmer (CO)

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50198

Alvin Kunugi has a love-hate relationship with the sun, and it just got more complex. A farmer in San Luis Valley, Colorado, Kunugi's plants harvest the sun's energy and turn it into stored energy in the form of calories. But the sun in the valley is a little too much.

The project will save the farmers money for three main reasons. The first one is a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture managed by the local Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D). The second is a $4.50 buy down per watt from Xcel Energy, the local utility. The last part of the equation is a federal tax credit of up to 30% of the upfront costs for a business such as a farm.
It's actually one of sunniest places in the U.S.—and forces him to spend 15,000 dollars a year on energy for irrigation.

The irrigation works with a central pivot. These plots look like large green circles from the sky. But roads in the prairies create a checkerboard. The result is four unfarmed corners on each checker, which provide amazing space for harvesting the sun in another way: with solar panels.

Kunugi, as well as five other farmers, recently each had a 10 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) solar system installed on their property. In the summer months, most of the energy generated from these systems will go to the farmers pivot irrigation and in the winter, it will go to the pool of electricity in the grid.

<more>