Two 9kw inverters run the 20kw solar electric system on the Hog's Back Farm. A soft hum on sunny days and quiet beeps are the only noise from the system.David Van Eeckhout, owner of Hog's Back Farm in Arkansaw, recently  installed a 20kw solar panel system to power his 80-acre CSA farm.

Local farm turns to sun for electricity needs

Since turning them on each inverter has saved 2516 pounds of carbon dioxide...

Since 2002, David Van Eeckhout, owner of Hog's Back Farm in Arkansaw, has been farming.
Hog's Back Farm sits north of Highway 10, and covers 80 acres, a lot of which is in CRP. Van Eeckhout grew up in Long Lake, Minn., and worked on farms for other people.
"I really enjoyed it, and I knew that's what I wanted to do," he said.
After about five years, Van Eeckhout said he realized he needed to figure out how to do the work on his own.
"The farm I was working at started a small community supported agriculture, or CSA, operation, so it was an easy transition to get started on my own," he said. "The farm I was working for didn't want to continue the CSA, so I was able to start with some business, which made it easier."
When looking for land, Van Eeckhout said the land in this area was appealing because of the hills, and the considerably lower price compared to the cities.
"Because of the topography here, it doesn't allow for massive multi-thousand-acre farms," he said. "A lot of areas in Minnesota are just huge, but the small-farm infrastructure here was appealing to me."
Van Eeckhout's CSA operation offers certified organic vegetables, and markets mainly in the Twin Cities. The farm includes six acres in vegetables in any given year, and 20 in cover crops and soil-building in preparation for vegetables.
"We do a lot of soil building to get a good vegetable yield," he said.
Van Eeckhout said he took the organic route because he cares about the food he eats.
"There was never any question for me to go the organic route," he said. "1998 was the first year I worked on a farm, and organic practice was starting to get momentum then. I never considered anything else."
Van Eeckhout said organic practice was part of his business model, and believes it to be a way to get value out of his efforts.
Through the CSA, customers purchase a share of produce grown for the season on the Hog's Back Farm.
"We generally offer an eight-week share from June to October," Van Eeckhout said. "We have a wide variety of stuff, typically about 50 kinds of produce in multiple plantings so there's a nice variety each week."
Van Eeckhout said he tries to discourage people from getting into CSA unless they're familiar with the program.
"This involves a trusting relationship between the grower and customer," he said. "If we have a good year the customer gets a lot, but if it's a poor year there's not as much. The customer has to trust that the producer knows what he's doing."
Van Eeckhout said CSA is about people being concerned about where their food comes from, and he doesn't make an effort to get local customers.
"It's efficient for me to go to the cities, where people can't or don't have gardens," he said. "They're very appreciative of the fresh produce."
Hog's Back Farm is able to fulfill around 175 shares.
"They're fairly large, so some people split them up," Van Eeckhout said. "Two people might split a share with another couple."
Van Eeckhout said he also offers around 120 storage shares that reach into Thanksgiving time, with crops that can be stored for some time.
Van Eeckhout said he's done surveys to see how many people are eating from a share, and said the shares average eight or nine people.
"I figure in any given week, we're feeding around 1000 people, which is great," he said.
The shares include standard crops such as tomatoes, lettuce, and peas, and demand for onions, carrots, and potatoes are high. Van Eeckhout said he also gets sweet corn from Dan Sam.
"We also offer melons, squash, broccoli, and cabbage," he said.
Van Eeckhout said the organic CSA requires a lot of hand labor, and he has three full-time employees.
"We use cultivating tractors with several different implements to control weeds," he said. "We utilize crop rotation and transplanting rather than direct-seeding to give crops a jump on the weeds."
Plastic mulch is also applied to the soil, which is then planted through, and becomes a barrier for weeds and retains moisture.
Barriers are also used, which let light, air, and water through while keeping out bugs. Van Eeckhout said there are also organic insecticides used.
"We have to document and justify any use to our certifier," he said.
Every year, a third-party person comes to the farm to verify records and practices to make sure the Hog's Back Farm is doing what they say.
In the last few years, Van Eeckhout said the growing season was very dry. The irrigation system is electric, and costs were driven up by higher usage.
"We had problems budgeting for our electric bills," he said. "For farms like ours, we know our income before the season, and we carefully budget the money. We need to work out how to pay employees and ourselves."
With electric going up all the time, Van Eeckhout said the bill was hard to predict, so he started to look at other options.
"I had a wind-site assessment, but that would have cost about $100,000, which just wasn't going to happen," he said. "I sort of put it in the back of my mind."
Van Eeckhout said he had talked to Dwight Jelle over the years about solar power.
"Prices have come down, and it became a viable option," he said. "I wanted to be able to do a lot of the work between myself and my crew."
Van Eeckhout said there is a benefit to having a professional involved, but installing a solar energy system isn't so complicated that someone running a farm cant' do it.
"We needed someone qualified to do the electric work and hook us to the grid, but it wasn't necessary to pay someone to pull wire through a conduit," he said.
Van Eeckhout said he sat down and went over numbers, and decided solar was doable.
"We set down the road to make it happen," he said. "We flipped the switch a little over a month ago."
Planning started last winter, and ordering began April 1. The system was up and in the ground by June 1, then electrical components and utilities were addressed.
"It was a bit tricky on an old farm," Van Eeckhout said. "We had to make some upgrades to our electrical system, which added some cost. But, that's done, and there's a benefit to that."
A few years ago, Van Eeckhout said the project would have cost eight to 10 dollars a watt per watt installed. He said his whole project was completed for two dollars a watt per watt installed.
"It should pay for itself in 10-12 years," he said. "That's if the price of electric doesn't go up, which it almost certainly will. In that case it'll pay for itself even sooner."
Van Eeckhout said by installing the solar energy system, he will be able to budget his money and be consistent long-term.
"Not having a $500 a month bill doesn't take long to realize the math works out," he said.
The 20 kilowatt system consists of 66 305-watt panels.
"The system will provide 100 percent of the farm's electrical usage," he said. "And that's the goal."
In any given month, if the farm produces more energy than it's using, the energy will feed back into the grid, and vice versa.
"At the end of the month I'll get a bill, and the goal is for it to be zero," he said. "If I buy energy, it's 12 cents per kilowatt hour, but if I have extra, Xcel buys it for 3 cents per kilowatt hour. With such a differential the goal is to just be zero. It'd be nice if that was different, and I hope it changes at some point."
In a cloudy month, Van Eeckhout said he may pay Xcel $100, then get $20 the next month.
"It'd be great if at some point it evens out," he said.
Van Eeckhout said the system is relatively maintenance-free.
"It just goes," he said. "It's pretty awesome."
The 66 panels are on a fixed-racking, and generate DC, which is piped to inverters to convert the energy to AC, which feeds the grid. The 20kw system uses two 9kw inverters.
"Since turning them on each inverter has saved 2516 pounds of carbon dioxide," Van Eeckhout said.
Van Eeckhout said the Hog's Back Farm has been the same size for four years, and said it's a good size for him and his family.
"If we got any larger we'd need more employees and money for infrastructure," he said. "I think there is room for more farms doing a sustainable amount, rather than few farms doing an unsustainable amount."
He said he's able to make a living off his farm, and is happy with the size.
"We'll be looking at how to reduce our existing budget, and other things along the solar line," he said. "I think one big project a year is enough, though."
Van Eeckhout said he will look at how to reduce labor needs, but that is a moving target.
"We need to look at how to be efficient at growing so many things at once," he said. "We keep our customers happy with a variety, and 80 to 85 percent of my customers are retained, so it's in my best interest to provide a good variation in an amount they can use."
Hog's Back Farm has 11 pick-up sites around the Twin Cities in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and St. Louis Park.
"All are at peoples' houses," he said. "A customer will volunteer to be a pick-up site, and we try to keep fewer than 20 shares at a site so it's not too crazy. We use reusable plastic totes, and are still using some boxes we purchased in 2002."
Van Eeckhout said communication with the customer is very important.
"I have an email list and send out a newsletter every Wednesday night, talking about what's going in the box that week and what's happening on the farm."
Van Eeckhout said customers love the direct connection.
"As far as the shares go, there's no doubt a person can get cheaper food, but you don't get that connection," he said. "We also send out recipes."
Being able to email his customers also saves money versus printing out newsletters.
"I'm hoping the solar energy is awesome," Van Eeckhout said. "It was a lot of work, but I think I'll look back in a couple of years and say 'wow, that was worth it.'"

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