HENRIETTA, N.Y. — A local farm has found a way to grow crops and generate solar energy on the same land.
For four generations, Remelt Farms in Henrietta has produced a variety of crops, from corn to Christmas trees. These days, the family farm is harvesting chrysanthemums and sunlight.
Charlie Remelt said a few years ago they decided to lease 25 of their 100 acres for solar use in an effort to generate income to keep up with expenses and taxes. News10NBC reporter Brett Davidsen visited the farm to see how renewable energy and farming are co-existing.
“Quite honestly, we probably would have been very much looking to sell it off to developers,” Remelt said when asked what would have happened without the solar panels.
Remelt said they wanted to preserve the land as open farmland and saw an opportunity to do that by growing potted mums in the spaces between the rows of solar arrays. Supplying local farm stands, they sold out the mums last year in just three weeks.
“We tried a small plot of 1000 plants. It worked out really well. It’s now expanded up to this year there’s 7000 plants out here,” Remelt said.
Their experiment is part of a trend called agrivoltaics, where crops and solar panels co-exist. It comes amid growing resistance as the number of large-scale solar projects spread across the rural landscape.
In May, News10NBC showed the construction of thousands of acres of solar panels in Genesee County that has leaders there worried about the threat to agriculture.
In Henrietta, town leaders recognized the importance of preserving the rural character and created a farmland protection plan, which says only 25 percent of a parcel can be used for solar. The remainder of the land must retain an agricultural component.
READ MORE: News10 Investigates: Genesee County farmers lease thousands of acres to solar projects amid struggle to stay profitable
“The thing we did was tie all of those things to the farm staying in operation,” Henrietta Town Supervisor Steve Schultz said.
Schultz said it was important to find a balance.
“How can we handle our zoning so we don’t have these massive solar arrays that wipe out farms but actually incorporate them to help the farms,” Schultz said.
Remelt said growing mums among the solar panels gives them the best of both worlds.
“My biggest thing is, don’t look at a solar array as just a solar array. Even a system that wasn’t designed for an agrivoltaic component, we looked around and found a crop that would work inside what was built,” Remelt said.
Remelt said they chose mums because they’re low growing and the solar panels give them the right amount of shade. He said they are hoping to scale up their operation and add vegetables and pumpkins in the future on the same land.
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