@Passepartout You might see more EV infrastructure in the boonies sooner than you think. Here is an article in last week's WSJ. The station I used last weekend was at a private school that had installed solar panels in their parking lot. I believe they take a cut from this charging station.
Struggling Farmers See Bright Spot in Solar
By
Kirk Maltais
September 23, 2019
U.S. farmers are embracing an alternative means of turning sunlight into revenue during a sharp downturn in crop prices: solar power.
Solar panels are being installed across the Farm Belt for personal and external use on land where growers are struggling to make ends meet.
The tit-for-tat tariffs applied by the U.S. and China to each other’s goods have cut demand for American crops. Futures prices for corn, soybeans and wheat are all trading around their lowest levels since 2010. Making matters worse, record spring rainfall left many farmers no time to plant a decent crop.
The revenue that Dick and Jane Nielsen earn from the corn and soybeans they grow on 3,500 acres outside St. Paul, Minn., has dropped by about 30% over the past six years. The Nielsens are planning to make up some of the shortfall with the roughly $14,000 that a local utility has agreed to pay them annually for the next 22 years to operate an array of solar panels on 15 acres of their land.
A local utility has agreed to pay Jane and Dick Nielsen roughly $14,000 annually for the next 22 years to operate solar panels on their land. PHOTO: TIM GRUBER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“It’s something to live on until we’re gone,” said Mr. Nielsen, 77 years old.
Farmers have two options for adding solar power on their farms: lease land for energy companies to generate power to funnel electricity into the grid, as the Nielsens are doing; or install their own solar panels to cut their electricity bills. Both methods can amount to more than $1,000 a month in improved margins, according to farmers and renewable-energy advocates.
“There’s absolutely growing interest in farmers improving their income streams,” said Rob Davis, a director with Fresh Energy, a St. Paul nonprofit that has worked with a few hundred farmers in 30 states to add solar power with environmental benefits to their operations. More
https://www.wsj.com/articles/struggling-farmers-see-bright-spot-in-solar-11569242733