For a grain elevator, electricity is essential to keeping grain moving. Motors, conveyors, aeration fans, and drying systems all play a role in receiving, storing, conditioning, and shipping crops. During harvest season, those systems can run for long hours as grain comes in from local farms, creating a significant and sustained demand for electricity.
For Sublette Grain Co-op in Sublette, Illinois, managing that energy demand was an important part of keeping its operation moving forward. The growing grain elevator wanted to continue providing reliable service to its stockholders and local farmers while finding a practical way to manage the cost of the electricity required to operate its facility.
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Harvest season can put a grain elevator's equipment to the test. As crops move from the field to the elevator, grain handling systems can operate around the clock to receive and process incoming loads. Conveyors move grain throughout the facility, drying systems help prepare crops for storage, and aeration fans maintain grain quality.
With so much equipment operating throughout the season, electricity is a necessary operating expense. Sublette Grain needed a way to offset a portion of its electricity use without interfering with the existing operations of the elevator.
The solution was to generate electricity on-site with a ground-mounted solar array. Working with Harvest Solar, Sublette Grain installed a 502 kWdc ground-mounted system near its facility.
Ground-mounted solar can be a practical option for agricultural operations with available land near their facilities. Instead of relying on rooftop space, the system can be positioned on nearby acreage while allowing the grain elevator and its existing equipment to continue operating as usual.
For Sublette Grain, the 502 kWdc array is estimated to generate approximately 674,290 kWh of electricity each year. The system is sized to provide a substantial source of on-site generation, helping offset electricity purchased from the grid as the elevator's equipment continues to handle the demands of the operation.
Generating electricity where it is used also gives Sublette Grain another way to approach its energy expenses. Rather than relying entirely on purchased electricity, a portion of the facility's energy needs can be met through the solar array.
Turning Sunlight Into Operational Savings
The solar project has already become a meaningful part of Sublette Grain's approach to managing its operating costs. The array is projected to provide approximately $43,927 in annual utility savings, with projected utility-bill savings of approximately $2.7 million over 30 years.
For an operation where electricity is a necessary part of nearly every stage of grain handling, those savings can have a broader impact. Solar provides Sublette Grain with a source of electricity that is generated on-site, helping create greater predictability around a portion of its future energy expenses.
The project also included significant incentives. Sublette Grain factored in additional incentives through the Illinois Shines Program. Together, these incentives are projected to bring the project's return on investment to approximately one year.
For Sublette Grain, the solar project is about more than the equipment itself. The grain elevator is continuing to grow while working to accommodate the farmers and stockholders who depend on its services.
Manager Reed Akre described the project's impact:
“We’re a growing elevator wanting to accommodate our stockholders and our local farmers making sure we’re giving them the best services we can. This is helping to allow us to keep our costs down and just keep moving forward. It’s helped out great.”
That perspective reflects the role energy management can play in an agricultural operation. When electricity is necessary to keep equipment running, finding ways to manage that expense can help an operation direct more resources toward the work it is there to do: serving farmers, handling grain, and keeping crops moving through the supply chain.
A Solar Investment for the Years Ahead
Sublette Grain's 502 kWdc solar array is expected to generate approximately 674,290 kWh annually and deliver more than $2.7 million in projected utility savings over 30 years. The system also has an estimated carbon dioxide offset equivalent to the emissions from burning approximately 14.4 million pounds of coal.
For a grain elevator, solar does not replace the equipment and systems that keep grain moving. Instead, it works alongside those operations by generating electricity on-site and helping offset the energy required to run them.
Sublette Grain's project demonstrates how a ground-mounted solar system can be integrated into an agricultural operation with significant electricity needs. By putting available acreage to work, the elevator is generating its own power while taking a different approach to one of its ongoing operating expenses.
As Sublette Grain continues serving its local farmers and stockholders, the solar array will continue producing electricity alongside the daily work of receiving, storing, drying, and moving grain from the field to market.
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