Adolphus Busch IV is the proud owner of five new massive solar panels, angled toward the sun atop steel structures resembling white football goal posts. The $100,000 system makes Busch owner of the region’s largest personal solar power plant, according to energy officials. Busch, along with several proponents of renewable energy, held a news conference to celebrate solar power and its potential to become a part of the everyday lives of farmers and homeowners.
The event was intended to stress that renewable energy like solar power isn’t just for the rich or hard-core environmentalists who choose to live entirely “off the grid” of traditional electrical power. New legislation sponsored by Bray and pushed by Farmergy officials has made it easier for property owners — particularly farmers — to tie a personal renewable energy system such as solar or wind generators into the existing electrical grid, ensuring they have a steady supply of electricity when the weather goes gray.
The “easy connect” act, passed in late spring, allows owners of solar systems to get a one-to-one credit for any additional power they generate that goes back into the power grid for other users. Previously, those owners were only getting the wholesale value of their surplus electricity — about half of its value — which made it financially unreasonable for frugal farmers, said Henry Rentz, a vice president at Farmergy who helped draft the new rules.
Bray said “easy connect” along with her wish for greater incentives will make solar power and other sources of renewable energy more attractive to property owners. Please click here to read the full story by Nancy Cambria of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
