Santa Paula Times
By Peggy Kelly

There’s something new being farmed at Limoneira Ranch... the sun. And a celebration of the agricultural company’s 5.5-acre “solar orchard” - the first of its kind - was held Tuesday, drawing dignitaries from throughout Ventura County.

Comments from those in crowd ranged from “amazing” to “inspirational” as guests surveyed the solar orchard, an eight million dollar investment that will not only pay for itself, but also save the company millions in future power costs as well potential energy sales.

“Limoneira is on the cutting edge of innovation,” said Brian Miller, aide to Rep. Elton Gallegly. “Sustainability is the wave of the future.”

The rows of solar panels are designed to annually produce electrical power equivalent for almost 200 average American homes.

Limoneira, one of the nation’s largest agribusinesses, partnered with Perpetual Power (P2) to create the 6,400 photovoltaic module solar orchard, which officially opened October 28. Annual generation of 1,950-megawatt hours will be used for one of Limoneira’s lemon storage facilities.

“By farming the sun, we’re going to vastly reduce our energy costs,” said Limoneira President/CEO Harold Edwards, “especially important given how fast the price of power is rising. Clearly, this investment will continue to pay off for decades.”

Read entire article