Rural Electricity Cooperatives Engage in Solar Baking and Gas Destruction

April 15, 2019 by Tina Casey

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Fasten your belts, it's going to be a bumpy legislative session in the great state of Michigan, where policy makers are planning to place solar panels on farmland. If the state eases its restrictions, look for other states to boost the rush to solar energy.

If this does not appeal to natural gas players, this should be the case. A good chunk of American farmland comes under rural electricity cooperatives.

The RECs are a creation of the New Deal of the 1930s, aimed at enlightening rural households at the time when the majority of farmers did not have electricity. The RECs are starting to push coal energy back into renewable energy, and now it seems that gas is the next energy catastrophe to be abandoned.

What about all about solar panels on farmland?

At first glance, it does not make sense to remove good farmland production for energy development. Well, look again. With careful selection and design of the site, solar panels can offer global benefits to the US agricultural profile, in addition to clean energy.

Here in the United States, researchers are gathering evidence that solar panels can be valuable grazing areas and pollinator habitats while preserving water and soil.

They can also lead to increased yields of some crops, in part because they provide shade during the hottest periods of the day.

This cooling thing works in both directions. Photovoltaic technology converts sunlight more effectively into electricity in cold weather and the growth of plants around solar panels helps to create a cooling effect.

In addition, solar panels are a reliable source of income for farmers, who could certainly use relief in an extremely stressed environment.

Solar panels pushing the gas, possibly

As in other states, Michigan has adopted a policy of preserving open spaces that limits the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes.

The preservation of open spaces in Michigan accompanies a carrot in the form of tax credits. He also comes with a big fat stick. Farmers who withdraw land from the program lose their credit and have to repay seven additional years of credit.

The state has already provided for an exemption for wind turbines, based on their relatively small footprint. Solar panels could join the club if solar energy advocates can show that agriculture can also coexist with photovoltaic panels.

Meanwhile, some developments involving RECs in other states bode ill for natural gas stakeholders.

Our friend at Network of information on energy indicate that four RECs from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois are experimenting with home energy storage for their customers.

The storage of energy is neutral, which means that fossil fuel can play. However, this project also includes a solar energy element.

Another REC project in Minnesota concerns one of our new favorite topics, solar-wind hybrids.

The Minnesota project is the first of its kind to reduce costs by channeling electricity generated by solar panels through wind power equipment.

This is important because solar panels and wind turbines have peak flows at different times, which reduces costs by reducing the need for energy storage facilities (the word fancyspeak for this is complementarity).

Rural Electric Cooperatives: Think Local, Act Local

Returning to this question regarding solar energy and farmland, the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association lists 9 member co-operatives serving 750,000 taxpayers in the state.

It's a safe bet that MECA members are turning inward to face the new wave of renewable energy in Wisconsin, which until recently was the epicenter of fossil fuel defense.

How Times Have Changed Dairyland, a Wisconsin REC, is excited about the new range of consumer solar panels that offer benefits to agriculture:

The site will include mixtures of grasses and seed beneath the panels and within the site, which will help to strengthen soil nutrients and reduce the use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

The facility will create habitat for pollinators as well as grazing opportunities.

Reducing stormwater runoff and soil erosion from lands with solar panels can improve downstream water quality.

Say it! This is one of more than a dozen more pollinator solar sites in Dairyland's portfolio, in fact.

Dairyland is still looking to expand its natural gas portfolio, at least for now. However, the situation as a whole does not seem very favorable for fossil sector stakeholders. Dairyland is part of a sprawling network of electricity buyers under the Touchstone umbrella, and Touchstone has this to say about the future of the RECs:

As a non-profit entity, members know that they can trust their electric cooperative because it was created to keep the promise of providing members with safe, reliable and affordable electricity. – not to generate money for shareholders.

With safe and inexpensive alternatives popping up everywhere, it's hard to see how natural gas, let alone coal, can stay much longer in the REC landscape.

In addition, Touchstone's network includes 450 local members in 46 states, making it essentially the largest utility in the United States.

Stay tuned, CleanTechnica seeks clarification on lessons learned from the installation of solar panels on farms at Dairyland.

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Photo (screen capture): PV network with pollination habitat via Dairyland.

Keywords: Michigan, rural power cooperatives