Josh VanDerPol serves on the Executive Committee of Minnesota Farmers Union and is the Chippewa County President. With his family he operates Pastures a Plenty farm where they produce rotationally grazed meat and eggs for direct-to-consumer sales.  

In 2017, the VanDerPols installed a solar array on their land to supply energy for their meat and egg coolers and freezers. We spoke with Josh to learn about his experience with solar energy on his farm.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What type of renewable energy system do you have on your farm?

Josh: We put up a solar array that is 39.4 kilowatts in 2016/2017. The panels are ground mounted along our driveway where the land wasn’t being used for anything else. It’s a good location other than when we’ve seen snow collection from a late winter storm from the south. Otherwise we’re pretty happy with them.  

Since we installed them, there has been a change in the law for inverter settings on the panels, so now we get a little more energy than we expected to from the array.

What was your primary motivation for installing solar panels on your land?  

Josh: We had a few different motivating factors. We believe that renewable energy is a good idea so we wanted to be part of that movement, and it’s also a marketing strategy for our meat company to advertise that we’re producing renewable energy and using it to power our farm facilities.

Another factor was the potential to provide income for us if we produce excess power during the summer. That hasn’t panned out as much as we hoped for because of changes in the law for the rate of payback [or net metering] that our utility cooperative provides us. Other people I know with a different utility cooperative get better paybacks on their excess energy than we do. It’s a real patchwork deal on what you can make off of your excess energy.  

Were there any resources that were helpful for you in the process of incorporating solar arrays onto your land? Is there anything you wish you would have known beforehand?

Josh: A lot of the information you learn from people about renewable energy when you’re looking to install it is the financial prospectus, and the solar company seems to play it up as pretty rosy. But the reality is everyone’s situation is going to be different– power costs and utility cooperative net metering terms are going to be different depending on where you live. Especially since in our case the laws changed after we installed our panels, so we aren’t getting the payback on our excess energy that we thought we would.

Were you able to take advantage of any financial programs that helped with the cost of installing solar arrays on your farm?

Josh: We received a USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant for our solar energy system that paid for 25% of the building and materials cost, which was helpful. We received extra points for the grant because we have a value-added direct marketing business. We direct market meat products and eggs that we produce on the farm to customers and stores, and we use the solar energy to power our freezers and coolers. We have walk-in freezers and a two-door reach in cooler which need quite a bit of energy. We were also able to get the 30% Residential Clean Energy tax credit, which made the solar array an achievable project for us.  

What does renewable energy look like in your broader community in Chippewa County?  

Josh: We farm organically which is different from everyone else in our area, so the people in the community probably saw our solar arrays and thought “oh you’re doing one of those green things again.” But we’re seeing more and more solar panels around our area now. Sometimes I see them by the big hog houses around here to power the fans and other equipment. It’s becoming more and more accepted, but I think when we installed them we were kind of seen as different about things.

What challenges, if any, have you experienced with your solar energy system?  

Josh: Since installing, we have had some issues with the solar panels. Some of the issues have been with the physical equipment, like the breaker and invertors. The other issue as I mentioned before has been disagreements with our utility cooperative about what they’re willing to pay on the net metering from our panels.

The breaker was an install issue. The wire for the main breaker of the system was loose and arcing, causing the breaker to melt and overheat. The damage was missed by the monitoring system. We were busy during the summer and not watching it closely, and there were about three months when the panels didn’t produce any power because the breaker was out.

We decided to get panels with micro invertors because we were told that if they ever had an issue it would be isolated, since there is one invertor per two panels. But right now we have about 20 invertors that aren’t functioning properly. A few of them went out at first, and then more and more failed. It hasn’t taken out the whole system, just the individual panels, and we’ve been able to get them fixed under our warranty.  

In what ways has your solar energy system benefitted your farm and direct marketing business?

Josh: The solar panels are a long-term investment that should have a long life to them. Our thought was that the biggest direct positive was the ability to lock in our energy price, and at the tail end of it also have basically free energy. It certainly helps reduce some of the cost of energy, because our freezers pull a lot of energy.  

The other benefit is the positive impression it has on our customers by showing that we’re serious about using green energy and not creating more climate problems with our business. It appeals to new customers that might be interested in renewable energy.

Do you think that people in your area would be interested in a cooperative model for community owned renewable energy?  

Josh: I have heard of that happening around here. A few years ago, I wrote a letter of recommendation for our installer to support a co-op model that he was involved with in the Morris area. So yes, there are people out there that would definitely be interested in a cooperative model for renewable energy, and I would have a preference for that as well.