CSU offers solar quotes for feedlots

    Colorado State University’s Rural Energy Center has completed 10 initial economic feasibility assessments for solar energy at Colorado feedlots, and the results are promising.
    The cost of an average solar photovoltaic system among feedlots participating in the study is $187,000 before incentives, but gets down to $69,000 after incentives. Incentives include a 30 percent federal tax credit and grants from both USDA and the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
    Animal feeding operations participating in the Feedlot Assessments for Solar Energy program would install solar arrays between 4 kilowatts and 500 kilowatts to offset their electricity use. For reference, an average home in Colorado would need to install a 5 kilowatt array to offset its electricity use.
    The average system would have a 7 percent return on investment and only three years of negative cash flow on a cumulative basis.
    Solar arrays could be installed on buildings, open space or even as shade structures over open feedlots.

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