Home Nursery, an Albers, Illinois-based wholesale nursery grower supplying independent garden centers, landscape contractors and distribution centers throughout the Midwest, has recently taken a big step to make their operations even greener.
As of December 2016, Home Nursery completed the installation of 556 kilowatts (kW) of new solar energy capacity at the nursery production farm. Comprised of 10 systems, spread
throughout the farm’s production facility in Albers, the largest of the
systems is a 305 kW series of ground-mounted solar arrays at the Main
Pump Station. The smallest is a 6.3 kW system located at the
Distribution Center office, which is comparable in size to the average
residential system.
Altogether, the 10 solar energy systems will produce over 720,000 kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity each year, offsetting nearly 100 percent of the farm’s electric energy requirements and the equivalent of 555 tons of CO2. In just one year of operation, the environmental benefits of the Home Nursery solar arrays, in terms of public health, are comparable to taking more than 100 cars off the road, or growing 13,000 trees from seedlings over a 10-year period.
The idea of harnessing solar energy to save money on farm operations was sparked by a young member of the Home Nursery staff, Jacob Van Oteghem. Jacob is a tech enthusiast and was even able to capture some of the solar energy installation with his video-ready drone. Ann Tosovsky, third-generation owner and president of Home Nursery, and Paul Van Oteghem, vice president of production took the idea under consideration.
“For us the decision to implement solar is
a long-term solution to rising energy costs with low risk and high
return on investment,” Tosovsky said. “It allows us to reduce our operating costs and lock in a fixed
electrical rate for the next 25 years. It just makes good sense."
It seemed like a positive way to
reduce the farm’s environmental footprint, but they had to be sure it
was a solid investment that would provide a substantial return. The
leadership of Home Nursery collected and vetted bids from qualified
local installers of solar energy systems. They determined that the
purchase of a solar energy system, with a return on investment of
approximately 5 years and production guarantee of 25 years was a good
choice for Home Nursery. The project was originally announced in July.
The project also incorporates a $51,678 grant from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America (REAP) program. The REAP program is intended to encourage long-term investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy by rural small businesses and agricultural producers. The solar energy production will also garner payments totaling more than $450,000 over 5 years from the Illinois Power Agency’s Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program. The SREC program helps the state of Illinois procure renewable energy via in-state sources and brings Illinois into compliance with its goal of 25 percent renewable energy by the year 2025.
“Home Nursery’s beautiful horticultural products have been inspiring an appreciation of nature throughout our region for over 95 years," said Shannon Fulton, director of business development at StraightUp Solar. "The addition of solar energy at the farm’s operations signals an even greater commitment by this local business to grow communities cleaner and greener." StraightUp Solar, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is the firm who designed, installed, and commissioned the projects at Home Nursery.
The future of renewable energy looks bright in Illinois. As the President of the Illinois Solar Energy Association, Shannon also notes that with the recent passage of the Future Energy Jobs bill, Illinois will increase installed solar capacity by 1,350 Megawatts (MW) by the year 2020.
Photo: Jacob Van Oteghem