06/17/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/17/2025 18:14
Last month, OEC's Senior Campaign Manager, Jacqui Treiger, and Emerging Leaders Board member, Marlee Eckman (that's me!) joined Solar Oregon on their Annual Solar Wine Tour to learn about the mutually beneficial relationship between solar power and vineyards.
Our first stop was at Our Table Cooperative, a regional co-op in Sherwood Oregon, to check out their "agrivoltaic" system. I learned that agrivoltaics is the dual use of land and solar energy for the production of agriculture. In practice, that means placing solar panels in farming fields!
Now this may seem counterintuitive, right? Why would you put massive solar panels that block the sun over your crops? Well, many crops are heat sensitive. And with temperatures rising throughout the world, many of our food crops need reprieve from the hot temperatures during the summer. That's where controllable shading of crops below solar panels comes in.
Our Table shared with us that during the heat dome a couple summers ago, they lost tens of thousands of dollars in food crops. But now, with commercial-scale solar panels covering parts of their agricultural fields, they are able to generate 100% of the energy they need to run their farm and farm store, and better protect their valuable crops from overheating in the summer. Our Table has also partnered with Oregon State University to perform long-term, large-scale research into agrivoltaics. To learn more about Our Table's solar project click HERE.
Fun fact: If just 1% of agricultural land adopted solar, that would be enough to completely decarbonize our economy!
Our second stop of the day brought us to RoseRock Winery in Dayton, Oregon. They just bought a new property and are in the beginning stages of adding solar to their new barrel storage building. If you didn't already know, both white and red wines need to be kept chilled-and that requires a lot of energy, especially at the commercial scale! RoseRock is working with Elemental Energy to design and implement the right solar choices for them, and we were given a sneak peek into the costs and returns on investment for a project like this. It will only take RoseRock six years to break even on their solar investment, and in 30 years they will see a whopping 674% return on their investment! And as an added perk of adding solar to their building, they are increasing the value by $372,772. Not bad if you ask me.
To learn more about solar and attend a solar wine tour of your own check out Solar Oregon! If this article made you thirsty, you can enjoy a delicious pinot-and support environmental work in the process-with Planet Oregon Wines, which donates 1% of every bottle to OEC. The winery was part of OEC's Carbon Neutral Challenge in 2023."
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