Minnesota Farmer Gets Money Back Each Month from Small Solar Array
Photo from Resource Rural
Stuart Lavalier has been making improvements to his farm in northern Minnesota for years, but his latest addition is already a true cash crop. Lavalier’s Berry Patch and Orchard started off with strawberries and grew to include pumpkins, blueberries, honeyberries, lingonberries, cherries and apples. Now, the berry patch has one more money-maker: a 27.3-kilowatt solar array that zeroes out his electricity bill and adds to the farm’s income stream.
“We’re seeing a negative number on our electric bill,” Stuart told Resource Rural. “We don’t have a huge electricity bill, but the solar covers it.”
He says he’s also getting a check back for about $300 each month. We love that Stuart found a way to boost his farm’s bottom line!
Photo from Resource Rural
Stuart first learned more about going solar at a Minnesota growers’ conference, where he met a farmer who was committed to planting solar seeds for the next generation. “He talked about how we need to be thinking about the future,” he says. “I thought that was a good answer.” Stuart was an elementary school teacher for more than 30 years, plus he had three kids of his own, and he liked the idea of looking out for the next generation.
Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time he would embrace change to grow Lavalier’s Berry Patch. As the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources helped him erect a 10-foot fence to keep animals out of the berries, one of the guys made an offhand comment: “Now you can grow apples.” This remark was the spark that prompted him to plant 15 apple trees, and he now has more than 1,000.
Photo from Resource Rural
When Stuart heard about a grant that would cover as much as half of the cost of installing solar panels, he decided to go for it. The USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) offers loans and grants for farmers, ranchers and rural small business owners who want to save their business some money by lowering their energy bills with renewable energy. The program funds projects that increase energy efficiency or convert farms to solar and wind producers—pollution-free income-producing options that protect the water and land that farmers work so hard to care for every day of the year.
“Once I knew I wanted to get solar on our farm, I found out about the REAP grant,” Stuart told Resource Rural. “It made a difference. It made me feel comfortable going ahead, because then I knew I had that additional support to make it work.”
His new 27.3-kilowatt solar array provides more than enough to power his operation and puts energy back into the grid, earning him that $300 monthly credit. Now that he’s getting a check every month, Stuart reflected on the decision to go solar with just a hint of regret. “I kind of wish we would have went bigger,” he says.
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