Colorado is home to bountiful regions, innovative farmers, and a legendary 300 days of sunshine, making solar energy a precious commodity for farmers like Steve Ela of Ela Family Farms, a fourth-generation fruit farmer and Delta County, Colorado resident. To increase the ability for farmers like Steve to not only produce delicious local food, but to do so more sustainably and economically, Colorado offers the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing program, making efficiency retrofits and solar installations more financially feasible for agricultural businesses. C-PACE brings together owners of eligible commercial, industrial, or agricultural buildings and private lenders to finance 100% of energy efficiency, water efficiency, and renewable energy projects long-term.

Thanks to the C-PACE program, Steve pays an annual special-purpose tax assessment on his tax bill to repay the loan for a solar system at his 99-acre orchard. With the typical energy savings outweighing C-PACE payments, renewable energy projects are not just feasible, but potentially profitable. Additionally, since the repayment is tied to the property and not the owner, the repayment would transfer to a new owner upon sale. Of course Steve is not looking to sell his family farm, but this financing option makes energy sustainability at Ela Farms feasible, with an estimated eight-year return on investment.

Prior to installing solar, Steve worked with the Colorado Department of Agriculture to perform an energy audit, which outlined energy saving opportunities for his investment. After completing efficiency retrofits that made sense for his business, in 2017, Steve acquired financing for a 25 kW solar system that would soon power a commercial kitchen and refrigeration building. Being the first in his rural area to use C-PACE, Ela Family Farm’s local solar installer (Empowered Energy Systems) helped complete the C-PACE application, making the process easy, with a few banks even making competitive offers.

Since Steve’s work with the C-PACE program, he says the solar installation is right on spec and working well to turn sunshine into power for his farm operations. Furthermore, because of Ela Family Farm’s efforts to grow sustainably, in 2018 the farm was awarded the Colorado State Environmental Leadership Gold Award, the first and (currently) only farm awarded status of any level by the ELP.

Solar Forward partners with programs like C-PACE to leverage the benefits of renewable energy programs and encourage local economic development and resilience. To learn more about how Solar Forward can help your community farmers and businesses use C-PACE financing, please visit the Solar Forward homepage at www.solarenergy.org/solar-forward/ or the C-PACE website at www.copace.com.

If you would like to learn more about Ela Family Farms, their many organic fruit varieties or their holistic approach to sustainable farming, please visit www.elafamilyfarms.com.