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Mar 15, 2010 11:26 AM, By Harry Cline, Farm Press Editorial Staff
Gary Martin is among only a handful of farmers who can look at an electricity meter and smile. He does it almost every day.
JIM LOPEZ, left, Muzio Energy, Fresno, Calif., talks with Gary Martin, D. T. Locke Ranch, about the solar electric energy Martin’s family has been generating on the Locke Ranch to power an irrigation pump, the shop and a residence. Martin spoke at World Ag Expo’s irrigation seminar.
The other four are Martin’s family members at the D.T. Locke Ranch near Mendota, Calif.
They smile because the electricity meters on the family’s farm shop and main residence have not moved in seven years. Well, that is not exactly true. They’ve moved backward more than they have forward.
“I look at them just about every day. They are reading basically the same from when they were put in along with the solar system,” said Martin. He explained that there was a whole number programmed into them initially and the number moves higher or lower based on electricity generated and electricity used. “You don’t show a negative for net metering.” Today, they are showing little change, although seven years of incoming and outgoing electrical use has flowed through them.
Solar powered electricity is what is making the meters stand still.
Martin’s family makes up the Locke Ranch, a 1,575-acre farm near Mendota that grows 125 acres of almonds, 700 acres of alfalfa, and 750 acres of cotton.
“There are a lot of different ways to address the challenges of preserving the family farm,” Martin told an audience at an irrigation seminar at World Ag Expo.
http://westernfarmpress.com/equipment/solar-power-paying-off-0315/
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