Valley Grower Going Solar: 60,000-Kilowatt System Recently Installed at Terra Linda Farms.

By Jeff St. John, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

May 26–Joe Coelho is far from a solar power advocate, but he knows a good deal when he sees one.

In the case of Terra Linda Farms, the 14,000-acre family farm that Coelho and his two brothers manage near Huron, that deal involved a $460,000 solar system that will pay itself off, with an additional 12.5% return on the investment, during the next eight years.

“If that’s good enough for your money, do it,” Coelho said of the 60,000-kilowatt solar power system recently installed on the roof of Terra Linda Farms’ onion packing shed.

The project, installed by Fresno-based Unlimited Energy, won’t just provide about nine-tenths of the shed’s electricity needs during the four to five months it’s operating, Coelho said.

It will also pump electricity back into the power grid during the months the shed lies idle — electricity that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will pay for.

With state and federal incentives to support their environmentally friendly business, solar installers have been busy hooking up Central Valley farmers, said Tommie Nellon, chief executive of Unlimited Energy.

And with rules that allow solar system owners to make money from the power they generate but don’t use, even part-time applications like Terra Linda Farms’ onion packing shed are becoming cost effective, he said.

So far, Unlimited Energy’s largest projects have been in places like San Diego and San Francisco, Nellon said.

“I hate going out of the Valley when there’s so much sunlight and potential here, but I have to go where the money is,” Nellon said. “But when I can get something here, I’ll take it.”

Given the growth of agriculture-related solar projects in the Valley, he may just have more opportunities soon. After all, the Terra Linda Farms project — the biggest project Nellon has taken on in the Valley — is fairly small compared to others going on in the region.

In 2005, when Clovis-based P-R Farms announced it was installing a 1-megawatt, $3.2 million solar system at its fruit packinghouse, that project was considered the largest privately funded system in the state.

Just this week, however, Paramount Farms, a major California grower of pistachios, almonds, citrus and pomegranates, unveiled a solar-energy plant covering about 8 acres in Lost Hills in Kern County that matches the P-R Farms system in size.

The $7.5 million solar plant delivers 1.1 megawatts of energy, which Los Angeles-based Paramount will use to help run a nut processing plant in Lost Hills, said Sonya Grigoruk, a company spokeswoman.

The 8 acres of ground-mounted solar panels are expected to cut energy use by 15%, saving the company $300,000 per year, she said.

And that could be matched by two more projects being proposed in the Valley, said Fred Montgomery, the West Coast representative for Cleveland-based Garland Industries.

Garland, a major roofing and flooring company, is working on two projects for agricultural operations in the Valley, Montgomery said. Though he wouldn’t name the companies involved, he said one project would be at least 1 megawatt in size and the other would be about 870 kilowatts.

“Renewable energy is the way to go if you eventually do not want to have a power bill any more,” he said — particularly when power costs continue to rise every year.

Coelho said Terra Linda Farms may continue to add solar power systems to other farm operations if the system it started up this week works as planned.

“If power costs go up, it’ll be an even better deal,” he said.

Bee staff writer Sanford Nax contributed to this report. The reporter can be reached at jeffstjohn@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6637.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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