Far West Rice Mill

[quotes]“Going solar made sense from a business standpoint. Our electricity bill will be lower and the installation also means that our communities can breathe easier and enjoy California’s beauty with less air pollution. We are excited to be involved in this technology and know that it will exceed our expectations. We cannot thank Pacific Power Management enough for all they have done to make us an environmental leader.” —Greg Johnson, Executive Vice President of Far West Rice[/quotes]

[dropcaps type=”standard” color=”” background=””]The largest rice plant solar installation in the U.S. was dedicated on June 18, 2008, at the Far West Rice plant in Nelson, California. The cost of the $6.5 million installation was partially offset with $1.8 million in solar rebates from PG&E and is expected to generate 1,440,000 kWh per year, meeting approximately 70-80% of the total energy costs of the rice plant. Installed by Pacific Power Management, LLC, this large, ground-mounted array includes more than 5,500 Mitsubishi solar panels. With rapidly rising energy costs, the solar installation will provide predictable energy costs for Far West, helping to reduce their costs for the milling and processing of rice and, when the mill is not operating, their solar system will feed electrical power back into PG&Es electrical grid.[/dropcaps]