Always Sunny

Solar power on the farm

Gallery

Jim Kilpatrick has installed solar panels to generate electricity on his Warren Twp. farm.

A grant paid $23,800 of the $53,000 installation cost.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

WARREN — One would think lifelong farmer Jim Kilpatrick is part of one of the most stable industries going.

But when 50 million people lost power in the largest electrical outage in North American history in August 2003, it started Kilpatrick, of Warren Township, thinking about the sustainability of his 92-acre farm of soybeans, corn and wheat.

What if the electricity he uses to move grain out of his barn, power the tools in his repair shop and light his house were to vanish?

The price of gasoline then began to rise, and scientists spoke up on the detrimental effect greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are having on the earth’s ozone layer.

Those thoughts actually gave Kilpatrick nightmares, he said.

Kilpatrick has read that 80 percent of the cost to produce an acre of corn in Iowa is from fossil fuels, including the gasoline to run the tractor and the petroleum products used to make fertilizer and pesticides.

So, in December 2006, when he was preparing to build a 24-by-48-foot barn at his place on Kibler-Toot Road south of Warren, he decided to install solar panels on the roof.

Collecting the sun’s rays and converting them into electricity, he hoped, would give him back a little of the independence from the power company he sought, and possibly a little peace of mind that he was doing something to help the environment.

Twenty months later, the results have been good.

The panels provide roughly 65 percent of the electricity he needs to run the farm and his house.

During the summer months, the devices collect more energy than he can use, so the device sends excess power back into the electrical grid that provides power to other customers. At night and during the winter months, it doesn’t produce enough for the farm, and he draws power from the electric company.

With a grant from the Ohio Department of Development paying $23,800 of the $53,000 start-up costs and with federal income tax breaks, he figures he has about $12,000 of his own money into the system.

It won’t take long for the electrical savings to pay that back, he figures.

And then there’s the carbon dioxide savings.

He estimates his system has eliminated 300,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere since the system went online.

“The CO2 savings is not insignificant,” he said, standing in a field of soybeans near the barn with the solar panels. “That makes me feel good.”

Kilpatrick, a John F. Kennedy High School graduate with bachelor’s degrees in agronomy and teaching, says he was asked to talk to the Trumbull County Clean Energy Network about his solar power plant because he is apparently the only farmer in Trumbull County who has one.

Glenn Smith, former president of the Trumbull County Farm Bureau, says he, too, believes Kilpatrick is the only Trumbull County farmer generating solar power, though some have dabbled in wind power.

Athan Barkoukis, northeast Ohio program manager in the Cleveland office of Green Energy Ohio, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmentally friendly energy, said Kilpatrick appears to be the only person in Trumbull and Mahoning counties who is using solar collection to produce electricity.

He bases that on no other individuals receiving grants from the state to install solar panels in Trumbull and Mahoning over the several years Ohio has had the program.

He may not be aware of anyone who has installed the panels on their own, he said. It’s possible someone installed solar panels on their home, he said.

The number of people applying for the grants statewide is growing, he said. The area of Ohio using the most solar electric devices are the Amish in Holmes, Wayne and Tuscarawas counties south of Canton, he said. He is aware of a solar installation in Alliance, which is in Stark County, he said.

Ironically, Kilpatrick’s goal of providing himself with energy independence did not come to fruition.

The grant he received is only for the solar arrays on the barn and the devices that convert the direct current from the roof to alternating current.

The grants don’t pay for the batteries that some users buy to store their power. Having power storage capacity would make Kilpatrick more independent of the power companies, but that extra independence comes at a higher price tag, he noted.

Trumbull County is not considered a good place to collect either solar or wind energy, Kilpatrick said, though he has also looked into wind power.

Smith said neither solar or wind power was considered a good option in Trumbull County in the past, though he believes technological improvements in solar panels may be making it practical here now.

Kilpatrick, 54, who grew up on the Warren Township farm his family purchased in the 1950s, says he may still install a windmill someday — something that would bring the farm full circle.

In the early part of this century, farms typically had windmills to provide the power to pump water to farm animals. This was done because electricity was typically not available on many farms.

Perhaps the best part of Kilpatrick’s solar installation so far has been the lack of trouble it gives him.

Over the past 20 months, the devices have quietly generated 12,662 kilowatt hours of electricity.

“I don’t have to do anything. Basically, I don’t even know it’s here,” he said.

Barkoukis said the Ohio Department of Development still offers grants like the one Kilpatrick received, though it has discontinued a program that provided grant money for solar installations on homes. It still offers grants for wind-power generation and solar thermal installations.

Solar thermal installations involve the use of solar panels to heat antifreeze to produce hot water for residential or commercial uses.

Barkoukis said he has been told the state is likely to restore a grant for residential installations in October.

For more information, contact Dave Ambrose, a Trumbull County member of the Clean Energy Network, a year-old affiliate of Green Energy Ohio, at (330) 647-3666.

runyan@vindy.com