Solar energy is a growing presence in the agriculture industry, partly as a way to offset increasing energy demands from water shortages and mechanization. This makes farming and ranching a prime partner for the solar industry, solar companies told Motherboard at the World Agriculture Expo last week.
And while start-up costs of solar energy are still more expensive than fossil fuels, a combination of state incentives and increased demand means it's starting to pay off. [...]
Some agricultural pockets of the country are moving more quickly to solar than others. In California, a five-year-long drought has forced farmers to pump groundwater from increasingly deeper wells, which use a lot of electricity during the summer months. But solar has also been catching on in states where coal production was once a major economic driver, too, said said Eb Russell, president of RP Construction Services, which installs solar power projects. [...]
Solar doesn't make sense for everyone in agriculture at the moment. In some areas of the country, like Washington state, the price of electricity is so low that installing solar panels wouldn't help farms' bottom lines, Crown said. And while they could sell back some electricity into their local grid, the regulations and pricing around those are expected to fluctuate over the next few years as solar expands.
No comments:
Post a Comment