Solar for Row Crops

For a grower with 100 HP pumps, a solar photovoltaic PV cell system optimized by CalCom Solar can provide a net economic gain of $750,000 per pump over the warranted 25-year lifetime of the solar power system¹

While it may be incredibly difficult to accurately calculate the solar photovoltaic (PV) cell system capacity that you’ll need to successfully grow your crops over the next 25 years, it’s absolutely vital to maximizing your ROI. Why?

• For a single irrigation pump, overbuilding or under-building solar PV capacity by just 5% can cost a grower thousands of dollars over its lifetime
• Multiply that by dozens or even hundreds of pumps, and you’re looking at lifecycle losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars

CalComSolar’s deep expertise in the Ag industry and advanced energy forecasting allows us to accurately right-size your solar energy installation for its minimum 25-year life cycle:

• We model thousands of scenarios -- including your hourly/daily usage compared against dozens of Ag rate and tariff scenarios -- to analyze the impact that irrigation patterns have on your energy use. To identify just 2 variables we factor into our forecast:
  • We are able to calculate the impact that changing crops – for example, rotating from garlic to tomatoes – will have on pumping activity and energy usage
  • Our calculations take into account the different energy loads of different pump types:
    • Groundwater pumps
    • Booster pumps
    • Surface water pumps
• We can usually avoid displacing crops through various creative strategies, however, we can also provide hard numbers detailing the economic trade-offs that come from planting solar power panels in place of low to high financial yield crops. Most importantly, CalCom Solar can go beyond just solar energy generation to incorporate comprehensive Ag energy management strategies that add even more to your bottom line:
  • Ag incentive programs like Demand Response, Peak Day Pricing, Technology Incentives, etc. that pay you to improve energy efficiency
  • Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) that pays up to 60% of the cost of deploying additional self-generation technologies like Digesters, Wind Turbines, Gas Turbines, and more