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Grant Helps Palisade Business Go Green

by KREX News Room
by John Dias

Story Created: Jul 5, 2012 at 7:54 AM MDT

Story Updated: Jul 5, 2012 at 8:17 AM MDT

PALISADE, Colo.- With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Palisade business is hoping to save some green by going green.

High Country Orchards installed solar panels about a year ago, and the $26,000 renewable energy grant will help pay for the green technology.

"We are pioneers in the field and I think that's one of the reasons why the USDA has been allowing grants for the agriculture industry,” said Theresa High, owner of High Country Orchards.

The solar panels are expected to produce up to 119 percent of the energy needed to run their state of the art facility, which produces nearly 40,000 boxes of fruit a year.

"We had to go ahead and install this prior to knowing whether or not we would receive the grant or not," said High.

High says the grant is a small percentage of what it cost to install the panels. “It was more or less an incentive to strike out whether or not we could actually improve our sustainability through the use of solar rays,” said High.

The solar panels are dual access and track the sun from morning to evening, granting the business with the highest efficiency.

It's still too early to tell how much money High Country Orchards will save by installing these panels, but officials from the company say they were worth installing.

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