Iowa Solar Farm Powers Up

KALONA, Iowa (DTN) -- Outside a small Iowa town known largely for its Amish and Mennonite culture, a small farmers cooperative officially opened up the state's largest solar farm on Thursday.

At 4.5 acres and about 2,900 solar panels, the Eagle Point Solar array doesn't compare to the scale of solar farms in Arizona or California, but it is significant that Iowa's solar farm was driven by leadership at Farmers Electric Cooperative, a 650-member cooperative in southeast Iowa.

The solar array will generate 800 kilowatts, totaling 1 million kilowatt hours of energy per year. Farmers Electric Co-op said that was enough energy to power about 123 homes. The project will mainly supply power to an adjacent commercial egg farm. The installation cost about $2.2 million, but will pay for itself in less than eight years.

The solar array actually belongs to a company owned by Barry Shear, president of Eagle Point Solar, the installation company. The power from the facility will be sold to Farmers Electric Cooperative. Because the cooperative is a non-profit, it could not take advantage of some of the federal tax incentives that offset roughly half the costs of the project. After 10 years of leasing the facility, Shear said it will be officially turned over to Farmers Electric Cooperative.

"Third-party ownership was necessary to take advantage of the tax incentives," Shear said.

Shear said the project is eligible for a 30% investment tax credit. The facility also is eligible for a five-year depreciation schedule. Shear said there also is 1.5-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit that could become available as well on the state level.

Iowa is known more as a leader in wind energy, drawing more than 25% of the state's power from the state's 3,200 commercial wind turbines. Shear noted Iowa has a small, but growing solar industry that keeps pushing state lawmakers to do more to promote renewable energy beyond wind. He called it a "slog to fight through the fossil fuel industry" at the state capitol, but he believes Iowa will eventually move ahead with a renewable portfolio that includes solar energy.

"Iowans and the Legislature want solar power," Shear said. "They want clean energy." He added, "I see massive growth in solar in particular in the state of Iowa."

Shear and others also pointed out that the solar panels and all of the equipment used to build the rows of panels came from U.S. manufacturing facilities.

Other speakers credited Farmers Electric Cooperative general manager Warren McKenna who searched for ways to expand his cooperative's solar profile. McKenna noted the cooperative tried multiple times to apply for state grants but kept getting rejected. Finally, the cooperative opted to move ahead on its own. Besides the Eagle Point farm, McKenna said roughly 10% of the cooperative's customers have their own solar panels.

"Never have I been involved with something that has so much member-customer support as solar has," McKenna said.

Following a recent state Supreme Court decision that could open up the doors for municipalities to better develop solar projects, McKenna and others said they believe solar power will start to expand quickly in parts of the state. Farmers Electric Co-op now has about 800 watts of solar power per customer, which makes it a national leader in that regard.

"When you have been invited to go to church to talk about solar power, you know you have gotten there," McKenna said at a small dinner Thursday night with some of the speakers.

Ernie Shea, director of the 25X25 Renewable Energy Alliance, said it was particularly unique that the project was led by a small rural electric cooperative. Shea has been working with a small handful of rural cooperatives to encourage them to develop wind, solar, biomass or other renewable energy sources. That's been a challenge, he said.

"It's a difficult conversation for many rural electric co-ops because their business model has historically been about large, centralized production plants that delivered energy to customers in the most reliable way at the lowest possible costs," Shea said.

Shea said a push for energy with lower greenhouse-gas emissions requires rural electric cooperatives to step out of their comfort zone, but at the same time create new economic opportunities in rural America.

"This is a mission that the rural electric cooperative family is positioned to provide leadership on for the next several decades and the work underway here at Farmers Electric is truly cutting edge," Shea said.

Retired Air Force Gen. Ronald Keys works on climate and renewable energy initiatives for the Center for Naval Analysis, now known as CNA Corp. Keys said he sees renewable energy as a national security issue. He noted European countries right now might be more forceful against Russia if they didn't rely so heavily on Russia's natural gas, much like the U.S. is reliant on Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. Renewable energy gives countries more leeway in diplomatic policy. Moreover, Keys said seeing a small, commercially-viable solar project in Iowa helps refute naysayers in D.C. who resist supporting renewable energy.

"I can go, 'Well, I don't know. I was up in Iowa and maybe they are drinking all that ethanol they are making up there, but I stood right beside a big solar array and up there they are actually producing eggs with solar,'" Keys said.

Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com

Follow Chris Clayton on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

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