High up-front costs have steered many farmers away from investing in their own solar or wind energy plant.  But that scenario is changing with the rise in energy prices and a concurrent drop in material costs for installing a solar or wind plant.

“In the last four or five years, the cost of solar systems has actually been cut in half,” says Mark Olinyk, president of Harvest Energy Solutions, a Midwest energy distributor specializing in the farm market. “The technology is getting better, and the solar panels are much more efficient.”

Growing trend

Solar and wind are the two most common forms of renewable energy in the U.S. But Harvest Energy Solutions says sales of solar have dramatically surpassed wind over the last couple of years. The company says the current trend across all states is leaning toward solar because the entire solar installation is getting cheaper.

With wind, Olinyk says the cost of your investment is basically the price of steel, magnets and copper used to construct the turbine, none of which has come down in price.

The company installs 10kW (solar) systems or larger. A typical system costs anywhere from $3 to $3.50 per watt, which means a 10kW array would cost about $35,000. That size of an array can power an average house. The energy, or kilowatt-hours produced, is typically used first, and the additional energy created and not immediately used is fed into the utility grid and stored there to provide a backup supply of energy when needed.

Incentives to act

Many farmers could justify getting an alternative energy system, especially with the number of incentive programs available. For example, the federal government is offering a 30% income tax credit to those buying a solar or wind installation for a home or business. This tax credit will be in effect for installations until Dec. 31, 2016. Additional national incentives and available rebates are listed at energy.gov/savings.

Local utility companies offer their own incentive programs. “Biggest thing we are seeing is that every utility company in the country has different incentives,” Olinyk says. “Part of what we do is to work with the utility companies for you to find out what incentive programs are available and which ones work best for you.”

“We have literally installed solar arrays on farms where the farmer has all of his investment returned to him after one tax cycle. This doesn’t happen all of the time, but it does happen.”

Olinyk says farmers in the Midwest should consider both solar and wind systems when calculating payback. “In some regions of the country, a wind turbine may be the better option.”

“We do site assessments for every potential customer. We will compare the costs of wind and solar, measure the projected energy output, and determine the [return on investment] for each one. And we give you a conservative estimate on the returns.”